Redefined purpose
by immortal1145
Summary: No summary as of yet
1. Chapter 1

_**Redefined purpose.**_

 **Disclaimer : I don't own Naruto, or any other character that might appear in this fanfic, they belong to Kishimoto and whoever made them in the first place. All I own are my own ieeas and plot. Props to Sinisteruto for the original story: A Broken Fox and a Caring Cat.**

 **Chapter 1:**

The Butterfly Effect. In chaos theory, the butterfly effect is the sensitive dependency on initial conditions in which a small change at one place in a deterministic nonlinear system can result in large differences in a later state. Such complicated terms to describe such a simple effect.

To put it in layman's terms, a simple change, no matter where it is, how big it is or how long it lasted, can bring devastating consequences to another place. For example, a hurricane's formation being contingent on whether or not a distant butterfly had flapped its wings several weeks earlier.

Big things have small beginnings. Like the forging of one ring, finding a black notebook on the ground, the consumption of a single fruit from a tree…or the end of a life.

What is the value of one life?

A simple question to which there is no right or wrong answer. Some would take that question and approach it from a monetary point of view, some from a cultural point of view but most would take it from a spiritual point of view. But why would spiritual dominate over other choices?

Because the gift of life is something we do not understand. We do not know how it begins nor what happens after it's over, but we do know that all life is precious and to be protected at all costs. But the question remains…how much is one life worth? Are some lives worth more than others? If so, then why would these lives be worth more if they are all the same?

When would we be willing to trade one life in exchange for another? Or many others? The end of a life…how much the end of a life could affect our world? If you asked, anyone with half a brain would reply that it was worthless. A single life, the destruction of a single drop of water in a vast ocean would be meaningless and be discarded as worthless.

But this is where you are all wrong. Not all lives are worth the same and some are more valuable than others. Some, while they may not seem like it, are worth thousands if not millions of others. These lives should be cherished and protected at all costs for no one knows what their end could bring into our world.

And here is where the butterfly effect comes into play. This particular life belongs to a gentle, serene and very kind soul. A strong forgiving heart that housed a soul of steel. A person willing to trade her life for the person she cherished above everything. And it's with this particular life that everything began.

While she would have been tagged as someone weak and worthless, she was far from it. She was the key to saving this world, a key that locked the beast away…a key that had been broken before the cage was closed.

Unohana Retsu, was a civilian born kunoichi that pursued a carreer as an Inryo ninja.

She wasn't rich, in fact she was in the middle class.

She wasn't some legendary kunoichi, like Tsunade, in fact she was quite average.

She wasn't some otherwordly beauty, in fact, many who saw her consider her average at best.

But she was is the world of one person, one individual in particular, one Uzumaki Naruto, and a few weeks before his birthday six years after being born, she was taken from him.

In many universes, the two never met, in this one in particular they met when he was four. This meeting created many universes with a shinobi particularly talented in the healing arts, in this one in particular her death created a monster of unparalelled ruthlesness.

 **Scene change : (Valey of the end).**

"K-kakashi s-sensei, w-why!" shouted the blonde in a weird combination of anger, fear, hate, and sadness. This Blonde is none other than Uzumaki Naruto, also known as the kyubi jinchuuriki or otherwise just "The kyubi" or "Demon Brat". He is a 14 year old boy with sunkissed, spiky blonde hair with deep blue eyes and three wisker like markings on each cheek. He seems to be wearing a hideous orange and blue jumpsuit, but mostly orange with a weapons pouch attached to his right thigh. His normally innocent and sparkling blue eyes are now as dark and cloudy as a thunderstorm, raging in a battle between a collection of negative and painful emotions.

'What a demon, to think that he can actually speak even with my Raikiri pearcing his lungs, if not because of the damage, than the raw electrical currents I'm streaming throughout his body should have hindered his ability to even speak, much less scream so loud.' Thought the above average height Jonin now identified as Hatake Kakashi with white gravity defying spiky hair and one dark eye, with his left eye being red with three tamoe. The man is dressed in the standard jonin outfit with a green flack jacket and black gloves with metal plates attached for protection.

"One of the first lessons I taught you was to always look underneath the underneath, Naruto, you should have seen this coming a mile, no, a million miles away. I expected you to at least have anticipated this, I find it hard to believe that someone who has lived the kind of life you have led could be so naive and ignorant, to think that a blind fool like you wanted to be hokage is an insult to the title itself.."

"Shut Up! T-teme...Those who break the rules are trash, but those who abandon and betray their comrades are worse than trash, wasn't that also one of the first lessons you taught us, ne Kakashi SENSEI!" screamed the blonde in anguish and hate, having started off in barely decipherable whispers.

Very true, I'm actually glad that you could remember this lesson, Naruto, that is exactly why I am doing this, I am taking out the trash that is holding our team back, so that we may reach our full potential." Said the copy nin without so much as a flinch from the jab from his student, soon to be former student.

"Cough Cough, what..~cough~ are you talking about?" asked the blonde in between coughing fits.

"Naruto, let us travel back down memory lane, do you remember when I was defeated by Zabuza, when he captured me in his water prison, tell me, did you honestly believe that me, The Legendary Copy Ninja, could have lost a battle so easily, without even at least injuring my opponent, especially after i had promised Sasuke that I would not fail to protect my comrades?" asked the copy cat, resisting the urge to smirk at the horrified look of recognition on the blonde's eyes.

"You..You...what do you mean?" asked the blonde, adopting an incredulous facial expression.

"And here I was thinking you had put 2 and 2 together, maybe I overestimated your limited IQ. Naruto, the person that was captured in the water prison was my shadow clone, which I had substituded myself with when Zabuza kicked me into the water, you get it right...I had counted on your promise to never run away that you made to yourself and your chronic need to show off, especially against Sasuke, your rival, and for Sakura, your crush. That desire for attention together with your stupidity would have driven you to attack first and head on and get yourself killed, imagine my surprise when I found myself having to switch back with my clone because you actually turned out to have a brain and rescued my shadow clone from Zabuza's water prison." Said the White haired Jonin, giving the blonde one his unnerving, intense stares.

"You...You were trying to get me killed and than save Sakura chan and Sasuke!" asked/stated the blonde in disbelief, his mask slowly but surely crumbling from the revelation.

'How is he still alive, how is he still even conscious, and asking me all these questions?' Thought Kakashi absent mindedly.

"Correct, why else did you think I only taught you the tree climbing excercise in wave country when I could have taught you all much earlier? Why do you think I entered you into the chuunin exams when you clearly were not ready for it? Why do you think I pawned you off to that useless Jonin Ebisu to train for the finals, Why do you think I taught Sasuke the chidori?" Asked the copy nin rhetorically.

"I thought..."

"Never mind, let me answer for you, it was a rhetorical question anyway.." stated Kakashi mockingly.

"I tried to get you killed by zabuza, but you came up with a plan and outwitted me. I didn't teach the team anything prior to that because i had been hoping to get rid of you first, I would than use your death as an excuse for the sudden change of attitude towards my team and train the remaining two to the best of my abilities. But I failed and you survived despite my efforts." Said Kakashi, pausing momentarily to give the blonde a chance to digest the information.

"I than entered the three of you into the chuunin exams, but not before teaching Sasuke numerous fire techniques from my arsenal and how to cast a genjutsu and copy techniques with his sharingan, and not before teaching Sakura trap making and setting and some low level genjutsu and how to heal moderate injuries without the use of chakra, once again I had hoped you would die in the exams because you were unprepared, and once again you defied the odds and came out on top against my best wishes." Said the copy nin venomously.

"But there was still hope when you were paired with Neji, the genious of the Hyuga clan who had raw skill, intelligence, and jonin level taijutsu and speed, and most importantly, who had displayed homicidal behaviour against his cousin and anyone who challenged his beliefs. I knew he would try to kill you if you were to be paired together in battle as you would obviously challenge his beliefs against what he did to his cousin, who also happens to be your classmate and friend, imagine my luck when it turned out you would be the first to fight, and against him of all people. So I pawned you off to a weak Jonin who hated your guts. But once again you saw through my efforts like the demon fox trickster you are and sought yourself a better teacher who taught you how to access your powers, and you used them to defeat Neji." Said Kakashi, glaring daggers at the demon for making a fool out of him like that.

"By this point I was confident in my suspicions, I had always known that that happy go lucky Hokage wana be attitude was fake, and looking underneath the underneath, I realised exactly why you wanted to be Hokage, you wanted to infiltrate the village hierarchy and destroy us from within to get your revenge, playing the innocent child all the way until you had the power that you required, you were trying to hide your true self, but your ability to not only see through my plans but to counter them so efficiently without looking too suspicious confirmed my thoughts. Even your win against Kiba was a well thought out strategy, using his nose against him to create an opening, under normal circumstances, people would write it off as the idiot naruto getting a stroke of luck, but I, being your sensei, and knowing how you countered my plans knew better, this was all part of your genious plan wasn't it, why else would you pretend to be something you're not?" asked Kakashi out loud, though the question was not directed at anyone in particular.

All the while Kakashi had been talking, Naruto had been silently listening, too shocked to react or say anything in retaliation, who wouldn't be in his place, how could one have expected someone they considered family to have thought so ill of them all this time, to have been deceived like this?

"But I had already anticipated everything you would do, demon fox!" snapped Kakashi hatefully, breaking the blonde from his stupor.

"On the off chance that you survived your battle against Neji, I had decided to teach Sasuke my prized technique, the Chidori, I knew that Sasuke would try to kill you at some point in order to activate his mangyeko sharingan so that he could gain the strength to defeat his brother, but I knew he would need a trump card to defeat a demon trickster like you, so i taught him the chidori, using the excuse that he would need it to defeat the unstable and homicidal Sabaku no Gaara, this way, he would stand a chance against you, it would also be poetic in a sense, if my technique would be used to end your existence."

"But once again you saw through my plan again, after witnessing the power of the chidori when Sasuke used it against Gaara, you convinced Jiraiya sama to teach you an equally powerful technique, the rasengan. When I found out about this when you fought Sasuke at the hospital, I was angry at Jiraiya sama and confronted him about teaching you the rasengan and almost gave my cover away, that's when I realised what you were doing, trying to expose me to get rid of me, but indirectly, frustrating me until I started acting out of character without even realising it, which could have had the result of people starting to become suspicious of my behavior. You would than use your current influence over the Hokage, Jiraiya sama, and the clan heirs to make me look like the guilty one, painting yourself as the innocent boy with a burden, who only wants to protect his precious people. When I realised how much control you already had over the village, the village that Minato sensei sacrificed his life to protect, I knew what I had to do, which is why we are where we are at this moment." Said Kakashi, ending his long explanation.

"You bastard, you won't get away with this! Baa chan will know, she'll know that you're lying, and Ero sannin will investigate, me and Baa chan have a bond, she is like the mother I never had, and ero sannin treats me like his own son, they'll know what happened, you're going to rot in jail you bastard!" shouted the blonde, steeling his resolve with that trade mark defiant look in his eyes, a look that silently infuriated the copy nin.

"Mother you never had? Father you never had you say, you don't know anything about them do you? About your so called God Father and God mother who abandoned you and wanted nothing to do with you? Or your twin sister and mother who deserted you on the day that you were born, do you...Naruto...?" asked Kakashi, silently revelling in the horror and grief stricken look on the blonde's face.

"I'm an orphan. My mother and father died as heroes in the kyubi attack, they loved me...t-they...they wanted to be with me, to raise me b-but..but they died ..unfortunately, that is what jiji said, so I know, I know you're lying, jiji wouldn't lie to me teme!" said the blonde softly, hyperventilating, whether because of emotional or physical distress, Kakashi honestly did not know, maybe a combination of the two.

"When you asked him what their names were, what did Sandaime sama tell you? When you asked him why everyone hated you, what did Sandaime sama tell you, huh...Naruto...?" asked Kakashi.

"Jiji didn't know their names, the records were lost during the destruction. W-what does that have to do with anything, who cares about that! You know about my parents? I want to know about my parents, tell me about my parents, teme sensei!" screamed the blonde in frustration and anticipation, maybe even a little bit of trepidation as well, fearing what horrible truths might be uncovered.

"You fool, how do you know if someone is a hero or not if you do not even know who they are? Did you honestly think it is possible for a Kage to not know the names of his own shinobi, his own employees? Naruto, I used to be one of the A.N.B.U that were occassionally assigned to watch over you, so i know better than anyone how many times you asked the sandaime why everyone hated you, he blatently lied to you every time you asked that question,. If he could lie to you about something that important, what made you think he wouldn't lie to you about your lineage? If it was up to him, if Mizuki had not told you, you still wouldn't know why everyone hated you, he never intended for you to ever find out anything?" said Kakashi venomously, causing the blonde to almost flinch at the hate filled eyes directed at him.

"No...he wouldn't...Sandaime jiji said he loved me like his grandson..he was the only one there for me.."

"Of course he was, demon fox...!" cut in Kakashi.

"He had to determine whether you had regained your memories or if you had any hold over your powers, but he couldn't behave too suspiciously, he couldn't directly interrogate you either, that would render the law he made about your existence irrelevant. So he did the next best thing, he earned your trust by pretending to be your grand father figure, at the time, the only interactions you had experienced with other people were negative memories. He would then be your light in the darkness, the person who treated you kindly and cared about you, the person you admired and wanted to emulate, the person you could confide in. This way, it would make it easy for him to monitor you, or rather, to monitor the seal and determine whether you were a threat or not, you get it right...no one has ever truly cared about you..." said Kakashi with absolute sincerity that not even the blonde, who was bordering on complete denial could ignore.

By now endless tears were freely flowing from the blonde's eyes, staining his cheeks and even his torn jump suit.

"I-I'm tired, please...just tell me...tell me about my mother, and sister, why did they abandon me, a-and who is my God mother,and God father? Why did they abandon me...cough cough...?" asked the blonde, not even looking at the Cyclops anymore, his eyes looking at the ground with his spiky, blonde bangs covering his eyes darkly, his forehead protector having slipped off of his head during his battle with his best...former best friend.

He could feel it, he was dying, his body was so...numb, yes, he was numb, he couldn't even feel his limbs anymore. His heart rate had slowed down and he was sure that the internal damage he had suffered would hard press even kyubi's healing ability to keep him alive.

"Your mother left you on the day you were born, demon. She took your sister away with her so that she can train her to be a strong kunoichi, come to think about it, they are supposed to come back two years from now." Said Kakashi.

"Why..w-why didn't they take me with them?" asked the blonde.

"To protect Naruko, if people knew that Kushina sama was raising the demon, than they would hate her too, and by extension, they would hate Naruko for being the sister of the demon, to protect her daughter, she decided that she would leave the village and come back when Naruko was strong enough to protect herself from anyone, and strong enough to protect her home village, just like her father did." Explained Kakashi patiently.

"F-father?" asked the blonde curiously.

"Yes, Namikaze Minato, my sensei, The Yondaime Hokage, otherwise known as the **koroi senko (Yellow flash)**."

"W-what! Impossible, the Yondaime is my hero, the man i look up to the most, he would never seal a demon in his own son!" denied the blonde with renewed vigour.

"It was a no doubt a difficult decision, but sensei had trusted that your god father, Jiraya sama would take care of you, and as a fellow seal master, he would be able to ensure that the kyubi stayed locked away. Your mother, Uzamaki Kushina left you in her cousin's care, Senju Tsunade, but she also abandoned you, no one wanted to raise a demon it seems." Said Copy Ninja.

"Y-you keep speaking as if I'm the demon itself, and yet you were patient and generous enough to tell me about my lineage, why, if you truly believe I'm the demon, than why did you find it necessary to explain all of this to me?" asked the blonde softly. He couldn't find the strength to shout, scream, or curse anymore, his desire to hear the truth, to receive some form of closure was the only thing keeping him alive at the moment.

"Contrary to what you might believe, I'm not killing you out of revenge, at least it is not just revenge against you, demon.."

"Then why?" asked Naruto, not understanding at all.

"I cannot bare to see you use the body of my sensei's son like this, to watch Naruto suffer at your hands, by killing you, Naruto will be able to find peace in the afterlife, he will be reunited with his father and be freed from your evil, that is why I have taken the liberty to explain things to you, Naruto's spirit is still locked somewhere inside you, this way, he can at least know the truth about his family before he passes on, now die demon fox...Lightning Style: Lightning Blade Current!" said Kakashi, fully activating the modified version of his signature technique.

"GWAAH!" screamed Naruto in pain and anguish. He couldn't believe how much pain he was in, if he thought being pierced by the lightning blade was painful, than this was ten time worse. He could feel the electrical currents not just in the area surrounding his wound, but all throughout his body, it felt like every organ in his body...no, never mind that, it felt like every cell in his body was being electrocuted.

"Rest in peace...Naruto." whispered Kakashi before he kicked the blonde into the river, right between the statues of Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara.

'I've done it, finally. I've killed the kyubi, freed your son, and protected the village, just like you did all your life, Minato sensei...' Thought Kakashi, feeling a mixture of relief, sadness and nostalgia.

"Argh!" grunted Kakashi in pain originating from his sharingan eye, it was the most burning sensation he had ever felt in his life, but just as it came, it was almost immediately gone in nothing but 5 seconds, making him question if it was ever there in the first place.

'No...something is different, my eye is draining a lot more chakra than it usually does.' Thought Kakashi, who had to suppress a gasp from leaving his throat when he looked at his reflection in the water. Something was different about his reflection, more specifically, something was different with his sharingan. Whereas before it was red with three tamoe , it now looked like the tamoe had been connected to form a black, three pronged shuriken.

'M-mangyeko Sharingan, but how, I'm not an Uchiha...' Thought Kakashi in bewilderment.

'I cannot let anyone find out about this, at least not yet.' Thought the cycloptic ninja as he deactivated his ultimate sharingan, covering up his eye with his forehead protector.

"Sasuke, we'll meet again, I'm sure of it. I'll save you from Orochimaru, I won't fail Obito, we'll definately meet again." Thought Kakashi out loud before he disappeared with a leaf shunshuin.

 **Scene change :**

As Naruto was sinking, a white mist covered his chest wound, Naruto simply thought.

'Thank god for **Oshie no Shūdōin (Teachings of the Monastery)** , thank god for small miracles Kakashi is as dense as his teacher before him, I mean come one! If a bloody eight years old can see you coming there is seriously something wrong with you as a shinobi.' and surprisingly his injuries were disappearing due to the white mist. He started remembering the day when everything changed.

 **Flash Back start (Naruto age 6):**

A six year old blonde boy with sharp blue eyes, tan skin and whisker marks tripled on each cheek was lying down in an ally way being beaten by a mob.

This boy was Uzumaki Naruto of konoha. He didn't know why they all hated him but; he always tried to smile no matter the abuse he received.

The only people who nice to him was an old man in red and white robes with a funny hat and the people at the ramen stand that let him eat there.

This was one of the worse beatings he was getting it was his sixth birthday day where he should be happy but, no the people never let him be happy.

He secretly hated them for all the things they did to him, He did nothing to them why can't they leave him alone, He screamed in him mind.

He suddenly felt surrounded by water.

Deeper

Deeper

Deeper He sank into the lake the mob of his attackers had thrown him in too.

'Why, why, WHY! I've done nothing to them and yet I'm going to die.' He thought as He sank even deeper into the lake

Bubbles escaped his mouth and his eyes glazed over as He was losing consciousness. This was Uzumaki Naruto in what may be his last moments in his short six year old life.

Suddenly his eyes opened and they held pure determination as He tried to swim but He was in such pain He could barely move.

'I won't die, not like this! Hokage. I need to be Hokage like jiji and be a ninja.' He thought as He fought the pain but it was too much for his as He made it up somewhat but his body gave out from his.

The last of the bubbles escaped his mouth as he fell asleep. Suddenly his eyes opened but they were red and cat like, his body became surrounded with red chakra and the child redoubled his efforts to reach the surface, after reaching the surface 'Naruto' run all the way to his hideous in the forest of death, ironically the only place he felt secure.

 **Scene change :**

'Am… am I dead? No… I'm breathing and I feel warm.' naruto decided to look around. He appeared to be in a sewer. He looked around and saw no one around him, he then screamed

"Hello, is anyone here!"

"Yo...loser! You and I are gonna have a little talk!" said a voice from the shadows, Naruto turned and saw a boy with bright blonde, spiky hair, three whisker like lines on each cheek, manacing eyes with black sclera and yellow irises. He was dressed in the same clothes as Naruto but he looked, well for a lack of another term, evil

"Who are you? And why do you look like me?"

"Well I am you, how else am I supposed to look?"

Naruto stopped shortly at that, why did he stop? Well... for one, that voice looked kind of like him, not the same, mind you he was generally very well behaved person, not this sarcastic, arrogant and well...not well behaved voice. Looking up in order to identify this person, Naruto's figurative heart almost stopped in surprise.

"We haven't been introduced yet have we? Allow me to rectify that, my name is Unohana Naruto, pleasure ...no...displeasure to meet your aquintance." said the black eyed blonde sarcastically. For the sake of simplicity let's call him dark Na

"What! That's not true, I am Uzumaki Naruto, future Hokage Dattebayo!" exclaimed the blue eyed blonde.

"Not true, you're not Uzumaki Naruto, nor are you the future hokage, you're Unohana Naruto, the future destroyer of konoha, I know this because I am you..." said Dark Naruto with conviction.

"No way, if you are me, than who am I? And if I am you, than who are you? And if we are one and the same, than who are we?" asked the blue eyed blonde, squinting his eyes, a small confused frownon his face.

"Y-you idiot! That doesn't even make sense!" said Dark Naruto, snarling in anger at his doppelganger's stupidity.

"Hey who you're calling an idiot y-you..whoever you are!"

"Argh! I just told you who I am two minutes ago you imbecile!" shouted Dark Naruto , mentally blocking the urge to pull on his hair in frustration.

"Yeah, well you're a..."

"Silence you moron, listen I don't have time for this. Don't you want to know why everyone hates your guts?" after seeing Naruto's nod, dark Naruto continued "Well... there is no easy way to say this, when we were born, the Kyuubi no kitsune attacked Konoha, the yondaime Hokage decided to save konoha by using the only way he could. You see, bijuus are immortal they don't stay dead when you kill them, they just reappear somewhere else, so all the man could do was sealing it inside a baby." Then he pointed at Naruto whose eyes widened "Yeah that baby was you." Naruto was about to say something when dark Naruto interrupteur him again "What you don't know, is that the Kyuubi had an escape plan ready, In order to do that, he couldn't afford to have a strong host, he needed you to be weak. So he took away a part of yourself, he took away your darkness, your hatred, he took away that part of your soul during the sealing, before the seal had fully settled in. He would than use this part of your soul to store all the negative emotions you had and build it up to form a powerful hatred that would rival even his own. This would be his leverage over you, all he would have to do is wait for the darkest and most painful moment in your life, where you would have no choice but to rely on power. This would also be the day that he escaped, he would than use the hatred and anger stored inside me to manipulate you into removing the seal, effectively turning you against yourself. Once the seal was removed, he would than devour you and be reborn. This was his ultimate escape plan, at first I was with this plan but after a certain event, I found myself incapable of going through with it."

Naruto was shocked with all the revelations, he was the jinchuriki of the Kyuubi, that was why he was hated, and his hero the yondaime Hokage was the bastard who damned him. Then it hit him, what did his other self, dark Naruto call himself Unohana Naruto.

"Hey wait a minute, how does taking away my darkness and hatred make me weak? Doesn't that make me better off? And why do you call yourself Unohana?'' asked the blonde uncertainly.

"Listen here fool, you are the light and I am the darkness. There are both bad and good qualities about your light. The good qualities are that you are kind, loving and caring, you always want to help those who have suffered, those who are in pain, even at your own expense, especially your loved ones. These are no doubt good and admirable traits and can be used as a reason and source of strength...but..." paused Dark Naruto, his neutral expression transforming into that of disgust.

"But what...?" asked the blue eyed blonde in anticipation.

"Too much of anything is a bad thing. Because you have so much light, you blindly and willingly trust anyone who gives you a smile, you are so desperate for love and affection that you will except it from anyone. You trust people so much that it makes it so easy for people to deceive, use and manipulate you. Because of this, you attract the wrong people, you're like a dead corpse that has been left to rot in the wild, vultures flock towards you from all direction at the smell of your flesh. A scavenging hyena will tell you that he is a bunny and you will buy that obvious lie because you believe everyone is like you, you believe that people would never lie to you simply because you yourself wouldn't do it to them, that is so stupid it makes me want to puke my guts out..."

"So what! Are you saying that I should just hate and destroy everything, that I should be like Kakashi teme, or worse, Hebi Teme!" screamed the blue eyed blonde angrily.

"Don't be stupid! I never said I was perfect either, darkness is born within a person's heart when a person has suffered and has come to know true pain. Darkness breeds maturity, perception and paranoia. This is because darkness is associated with pain and suffering. In order to overcome their pain, people face many trials and tribulations, and these trials and tribulations are the things that force a person to mature at a faster pace. But, most people in these situations have been betrayed by people at some point, perhaps even those betrayals might be related to their suffering,and to avoid being caught in similar situations, these people learn to observe every situation with strict scrutiny , hence the perception and paranoia. Maturity, perception, and paranoia, these are the characteristics associated with a quality shinobi, these are the good characteristics that I have acquired from my darkness."

You make it sound like darkness is a good thing?" said Naruto

"Everything on this earth exists for a reason, so yes, darkness is a good thing, but it is not enough on its own. Too much darkness can lead to hatred, cruelty, evil, and ultimately..destruction. If you have seen the world for what it truly is, and you only have darkness in your heart than you will hate it even more instead of loving it, instead of redeeming or saving the world, you might choose to rather destroy it and end its sorry existence. Brother..." said Dark Naruto, now standing right in front of the blue eyed blonde with his right hand gripping his shoulder in a comforting gesture.

"You have felt it have you not? The emptiness inside of you, but because you did not know the source of that emptiness, you threw yourself at everyone you could get your hands on, anyone who would show you the slightest bit of affection, anything to fill that emptiness, that missing piece of yourself, but no matter how many 'precious people' you attained for yourself, you still felt empty inside, like a part of you was missing. Is it not so...brother?" asked Dark Naruto.

"H-how do you know? How do I get rid of that emptiness?" asked the blue eyed blonde desperately.

"I know because I have felt it too, I even sided with Kyu against you because of it, but nothing ever worked, my darkness, my hatred, and all my negative emotions are consuming me. To fill that gap in our hearts, we need to work together, we need to become one again, as we were meant to be, I need your light, and you need my darkness, so what do you say, let us help each other...brother?" asked Dark Naruto with a smile on his face, a small full of unexpected but sincere affection.

"You, that..you're way cooler than I thought..sniff...sniff...I..I want to be whole again, I wnt us to work together, to be one with each other, let us do it..sniff...brother..." answered the blue eyed blonde in between sobs, also gripping his brother's shoulder as a display of understanding and comfort, with what is probably the first true smile of his life.

In that instant, when mutual understanding had been reached by the two alter egos, a bright light surrounded the duo as their chest were pushed together by an invisible force. Forcing the duo to fuse with each other. At the same moment a seal on Naruto's forehead appeared before shattering, Naruto didn't registre it since he was dealing with an influx of memories, memories that were definetly not his own since he was pretty sure his name was neither Uzumaki Kushina nor Uzumaki Mito.

 **Scene change :**

Pain, that was all Naruto felt when the seal broke.

At first he thought all he saw was a dream, but then like a veil removes over his eyes, memories started to flood his mind, memories that he didn't remember before but now he could remember like they were always there.

He remembered her beautiful blue eyes that were a shade darker than his own.

He remembered her beautiful black hair that was always worn as a large braid down the front of her body.

He remembered he beautiful smile that never failed to light up his life.

He remembered her kindness as she took him from the streets at age 4 when he spent the whole winter on the streets and gave him a home.

He remembered her kindness when she took care of him for two beautiful years.

He remembered the wonderfull times he spent with her.

He remembered the look of pride when he told her his dream of being an **inryo (medic)** ninja like her.

He also remembered his failure to protect her when she was murdered.

But more importantly he remembered he killer, the bastard who killed her, his world, and more importantly his red eyes, like a demons, with three tomoe.

Suddenly, the memories stopped and Naruto found himself falling in a void, his only companion were two people, one who was his world, the other the one who took said word from him.

His mother: Unohana Retsu.

Her killer: Uchiha Itachi.

The revelations made the young Naruto roar in anger.

"They dared to kill my mother, they dared to take her away from me. I. Will. Kill. Them. All. Every. Single. Last. One. Of. Them!" roared Naruto.

 **Flash Back end.**

And that was how Naruto fused with his darkness and became complete once more, he started his training in earnest from day one, he unlocked his chakra and she started training himself using the memories of Kushina and Mito in three things that became the foundation of he was today, Runecraft, kenjutsu and how to use his Uzumaki chakra.

Runecraft being an old fashioned way of sealing that became absolete hundreds of years ago.

Kenjutsu and runecraft were simple, since as an Uzumaki he had a knack for both the arts, moreso kenjutsu than runecraft since the later used a runic alphabet that must be learned and mastered before leaping the craft itself, it was one of the reasons why runecraft was incorporated into **Fuinjutsu (sealing arts)** since instead of learning another language, a lost one at that, it was simpler to use kanji that they learned since childhood.

As for his Uzumaki chakra, the **Hachiman (God of archery and war)** that allows the Uzumaki to give form their dense Uzumaki chakra, mostly into chains but some Uzumaki had other shapes like his own **Geneiken (Illusion swords).** Naruto managed to create the blades but he is incapable of making more of them, but he was still getting there.

When he wasn't training himself to the bones, Naruto was researching his mother's murder. Unknown to all Naruto was an excellent infiltrator and that allowed him to find out about his mother's death. She was killed on orders from the Sandaime Hokage. The trigger man was Itachi and the why is what amused Naruto: The Uchiha clan wasn't feeling needed by the leaf, and might be planning a rebellion, there was nothing concrete at the moment since a majority was against the coup, but the thoughts were there and they were becoming more popular as time went by. In the event that the clan was going through with the coup, Itachi bargained for his brother's life: in exchange for killing off his clan and killing Retsu, Sasuke Uchiha was to be left alone. That strong will in Itachi moves Naruto, for about five seconds, before his anger flared again. If the bastard was willing to kill his whole clan, then Naruto was going to help him with that.

 **Flash Back start**

Naruto had decided to take revenge on all the Uchiha clan for what Itachi, the bastard did to his mother. He knew that what he was doing was wrong, but as he was right now he didn't care, so here he was, at night in front of the Uchiha clan compound, it was guarded by two Uchiha clan members, but he passed by them without them ever seeing him pass by their side, he was using a unique wind style jutsu that he created, the first he ever did. Trivia, when Naruto decided to use chakra paper to know his elemental affinity, he found out that he was a Fuuton user, a very powerfull one of his shredded paper was any evidence, he started learning elemental manipulation, complètent the first step: leaf cutting, from Kushina's memories since her husband was a wind style user too. Anyway Naruto's unnamed jutsu was a wind suit where Naruto wraps his body in a whirlwind. The wind suit gives Naruto the ability to reflect light, by reflecting the light, Naruto becomes invisible, which gives him the opportunity to launch surprise attacks. However, the wind suit takes a lot of chakra to maintain, and only lasts for roughly ten seconds, but on the bright side Naruto is capable of drawing his scent and dampening the noise thanks to the wind suit. He made his way to the Uchiha clan main gardens and saw his reason for being here, a mild-featured eight year old child with brown hair swept back, with a strand hanging down his face, alongside very manacing eyes. The child was dressed with a black kimono with the Uchiha clan on the back. His eyes were the sharingan with one tomoe in each one, his name was Uchiha Aizen and he was the next Uchiha Itachi. At the age of seven he unlocked the Sharingan and now a year later he already had a single tomoe in each eye. He was practicing the Fire ball jutsu near the River. Naruto did not really care who he was, but who his father was, Uchiha Kaname, one of the most influencial people in the Uchiha clan. How he knew, well his predecessor Kushina was friends with Mikoto Uchiha, the Uchiha clan matriarch, that was how she managed to acquire such juicy details. Well let's stop living in the past, let's focus on the present, Aizen so focused on his training did not see Naruto behind him not that it mattered since Naruto was using his wind suit, when he suddenly felt a prick of a needle in his arm, he looked at it and saw a senbon, he tried to reach but the remaining air that Aizen had in his lungs was sucked out and he could not breathe anymore air in, within seconds Aizen grabbed his own throat and he began hold onto it. As he tried to breathe, if someone was whitenessing the scene, and could see Naruto, it would seem as if The jinchuriki was choking the life out of Aizen by using some kind of invisible force. A few moments later, the Uchiha fell, dead. Seeing his job done Naruto decided to leave the grounds the same way he came in. Tomorrow the Uchiha clan found their rising star dead in the gardent with no whitenesses. All the victil had was a small prick of a needle on the arm.

When faced with the victim, poison then asphyxiation were the only logical conclusions, but the corpse would leave behind no evidence for either hypothesis. As far as assassinations go, this one was one of the best executed one's in konoha's recent history.

 **Time Skip : seven years after kyubi attack.**

The last half a year has been very satisfactory to the blonde jinchuriki, he had achieved more control over his bloodline, managed to make his plans for the Uchiha clan move forward, and he was making plans to leave konoha, not immediately, and that would be temporary, until he finally managed to leave konoha once and for all.

Speaking of his plans for the Uchiha, his plan was spot on, it seems that when the Hokage's med nins tried to do an autopsy to the Uchiha kid he killed they came back with nothing, that made the Uchiha clan very furious and distrustfull of the current regime and under the leadership of Kaname they started actively preparing a coup against the current Hokage and the village. That was Naruto's plan, you see Kaname had half of the council in his back pocket, either through political favors or the fact that they wouldn't be on the council in the first place if he did not allow it. Now seeing his only son killed had made the man very paranoid since the best med nins in the elemental nations were unable to diagnose what killed his son, that made the man think inside job, then think Hokage and finally he had managed to make the majority of the clan on board with his plan of the coup. Well he was right about it being an inside job, but he was wrong, it was not a useless old man that was doing it, nor was it an overzealous war hawk that wanted to rule konoha and make it in his image but it was him, HIM, Unohana Naruto, son of Unohana Retsu and the one who had his mother killed by the Rising star that these bastards worshipped . Anyway, the Uchiha clan coup was not going to happen, since the hokage, may his soul rest in the deepest pits of hell, had two whistle blowers named Uchiha Itachi and Uchiha Shisui. Shisui had a plan to use his mangekyo Sharingan on the Uchiha clan to stop them from going through with it but Naruto could not allow that to happen so here he was tailing Shisuii while using his trademark and newly named wind suit jutsu, the **kaze no mantel (wind cloack).**

 **Scene change.**

Shisui had short, unkempt, dark-coloured hair, black eyes and a relatively broad nose and well-defined eyelashes, that were turns upwards at each end. In the anime, however, these lines are broken instead of whole. He wore the standard attire of the Uchiha clan which includes a high-collared, dark-coloured outfit along with a tantō strapped to the right side of the back of his shoulder. He also wore what appeared to be a harness for his tantō which ran across his chest and fastened over both his shoulders. Said Uchiha was watching the village after a meeting with the Hokage and his advisers.

 **flash back within flash back.**

Shisui was kneeling in front of the four most influencial people in konoha, the first starting from the right was Homura Mitokado, in his old age, Homura is depicted with grey hair, a beard, glasses as well as a constant frown that he's always worn, even in his youth. He also has a strong jaw-line a facial structure he has retained even in his old age. As a member of the Konoha Council, he wears similar garbs to those that Hiruzen would when acting in his capacity as Hokage. by his side was Koharu Utatane, In her youth, Koharu was a beautiful kunoichi with dark eyes. Her hair is pulled back in a twin bun locked by a traditional Japanese hair pin with two pearls dangling off the side. She also had fringes that covered her forehead protector. Her shinobi outfit consisted of a simple black outfit, a grey breastplate, arm guards, fishnet tights with a skirt over it, a pouch strapped to her back with bandages, and regular shinobi sandals. In her old age, she maintains her original hairstyle without the bangs. The pearls on her hair needle have also increased and tassels were added to the other end. Her earrings are also considerably longer. As a member of the Konoha Council, Koharu wears a simple long kimono, closed by an obi, a jacket, and a sash over it. Koharu has also taken to squinting, barely opening her eyes at any point in time. The third person was Hiruzen Sarutobi, The only consistent physical feature Hiruzen has displayed has been his below-average stature, all his other attributes having changed over the years: During his youth he was tan-skinned and had dark brown, spiked hair, adding a small goatee to his look after becoming Hokage; Towards the end of his life his skin is lighter, his hair is grey, his face is gaunter, and he has the wrinkles and liver spots of old age. He initially had a single line running vertically under the outer corners of each eye, which stretched down into his face as he aged until they reached his cheeks. While Shisui respected all the people present it was the last person that had him on edge, situated on Hiruzen's left was Danzo Shimura, Danzō appeared as a frail, old man, who would normally walk with a cane. He had black, shaggy hair, and his right eye was bandaged — concealing a Sharingan underneath. Danzō has had an x-shaped scar on his chin ever since his youth. He wore a white shirt, with a black or dark grey robe over the top of it covering from his feet, to just over his right shoulder. The robe conceals his right arm which was bandaged, and covered with three large golden braces. As Shisui was continuing with his report Danzo kept his eyes closed.

"... as it stands, the coup is still in motion." stated Shisui dutifully.

"I see.." said Hiruzen, Danzo oppened his eyes and turned to his old rival and said

"Hiruzen what's your plan now? If we remain idle for too long it's going to be late." as he saw the lack of reaction for Hiruzen he continued "Look, as the head of the village, sometimes it's necessary fo you to make hard decisions. Isn't now the time to do just that." and he waited for the Hokage's answer but was interrupted by Shisui who said

"please wait" causing all to look at him "If I may, I think I have an alternative, there is a plan I'd like to try if you let me." now that caused Hiruzen to ask

"a plan you say?" but Danzo said " This is a waste of time, there are no other options right now" Hiruzen ignored the warhawk in favor of listening to Shisui

"what is this plan Shisui?"

"I will use my mangekyo Sharingan on the clan" said Itachi causing all the elders and the hokage to be surprised before hiruzen said

"do you truly realise what you are saying? You will forever be branded with the sin of using the jutsu against your own clan."

"I understand, but still it's worth protecting what I hold dear. Lord third please." causing Hiruzen to sigh before he answered

"If you believe in this, I won't stop you. Do what you must." Shisui sighed in relief before bowing and said

"thank you sir!"

"however'" continued hiruzen "you may step back and cancel your plan if you change your mind. Remeber, there is still time for all of us to think about other alternatives. Understood Shisui." Shisui left after that and now one saw the scheming look in Danzo's eyes.

 **Scene change.**

Uchiha Shisui was not having a good day. First he found out that the coup d'etat was going to take place tomorrow, then he had to miss his student's birthday party because he had to report the the Hokage and the elders, then he is given the order to place the Uchiha clan head under his genjutsu to control him, and now before he could make it to the Uchiha Compound to preform his mission he was intercepted by Danzo.

Shisui had already known that Danzo would have some kind hidden agenda so he was ready. This fact alone was the reason that Shisui still had both of his eyes. Danzo had tried to give him some kind of speech about protecting the leaf his own was and came at him with the intention to steal his eye. However Shisui caught his wrist and put him under a powerful Sharingan genjutsu. He knew it wouldn't last though.

As soon as the Uchiha activated his Sharingan he noticed the chakra in Danzo's right eye. It was the same chakra color as a Sharingan. Shisui immediately realized that the only reason that Danzo would have the Sharingan was to use the Izanagi, a forbidden jutsu of the Sharingan that allows the user to alter fate. However the cost of using it is blindness in the eye that was used.

He quickly Shunshined to his left and sure enough the Danzo that he was looking at disappeared and another reappeared right behind where he used to be standing.

"How did you manage to see through my Izanagi" Danzo asked annoyed.

"Did you really think that any illusion could escape my sharingan?"

The one-eyed man sighed, "I suppose I'll have to approach this differently then."

Danzo signaled for his ROOT to come out of the shadows and appear before him.

Five shinobi wearing blank porcelain masks and redular ANBU attire Shunshined onto the battleground.

"Danzo..." growled Shisui

"All of you juts stay back" said the war hawk to his drones.

"What is the meaning of this? Why are you standing in my way!?"

"Kotoamatsukami... a visual jutsu that creates false experiences. Such a great power, but what a wast to use only to stop a coup. How unfortunate that an Uchiha doesn't know how to use the Sharingan. If you used your visual prowess on your clan... as long as the Uchiha clan exists, it's highly doubtful that another coup can be avoided. And even if it worked it would be just for this instance. There is no guarantee that the same thing will not just happen again. On the countrary, it probably will happen again. Sooner or later, the village will have to deal with the Uchiha clan. If so by exterminating the Uchiha clan now... the future of the village will be assured, don't you think?"

"Danzo, you were planning this all along..." growled shisui but the warhawk just lookled at the sky before saying

"this is all for the sake of attaining true peace for the village" then he looked at Shisui and said "Shisui... don't worry. I will make good use of your eyes." and then he charged Shisui who quickly draws his tanto and counterattacks. After a few minutes of high speed taijutsu between the two shinobi, where both shisui and Danzo proved their metel as superior shinobi both fighters jumped back and strted breathing heavily to reagain their breath, after a few seconds Danzo said

"How persistent, you have clearily earned your reputation as the strongest Uchiha. I suppose I must force an opportunity upon you" and he made a signal for his drones to attack Shisui. They threw Kuni nd Shuriken at him but Shisui used his tnto to get rid of them but he didn't realise the warhawk sneeking up on him until it was too late and the elder had his eye, but Shisui was not ANBU for nothing and using a smoke bomb managed to give them the slip.

 **Scene Change**

The sun had set and itachi was worried. Shisui had never been this late. he heard movement in the trees above them.

"Is that you Shisui?" Itachi asked.

"Come!" Shisui said, still not visible. They went to the Naka river, where he knew Shisui would be. he found him looking at the waterfall on the other side. They walked up to him and faced his back.

"It's too late to stop the Uchiha's uprising. If civil war breaks out, then it will undoubtedly lead to a full scale war. I was going to stop the uprising with my Kotoamatsukami but, Danzo took my right eye." He turned around showing his face with one less eye. "He doesn't trust me. He intends to protect the village his own way, no matter what it takes or how it looks. I know he'll come after my left eye soon enough. Itachi, I'm giving it to you.". Shisui ripped his eye out of its socket. Itachi's eyes widened and then got a sad look. 'Shisui…' he thought. Itachi held out his hand and Shisui dropped his eye into it. Itachi closed his hand. "You really are the only one I can trust. Protect the village and the honour of the Uchiha name. Itachi I'm going to give you something as well. The Mangekyo Sharingan." Itachi's eyes widened.

"Shisui, you can't." Itachi said in a begging way.

"It's alright. I've already left behind a note." He began walking back towards the river.

"Wait! Shisui!" Itachi yelled.

"Don't stop me." He smiled and leaned backwards with a smile on his face. 'If you're my friend, my brother, you'll trust me.' Itachi ran to Shisui to try and grab his hands, only to fall short and watch his brother fall into the Naka river with the smile never leaving his face.

"Shisui! Itachi yelled. His body disappeared in the currents.

"Shisui…" Itachi muttered, he then started snickering until it turned into full blown out laughter before he said "man for the strongest of the Uchiha he sure is naive. But never the less Rest in peace. Shisui." Itachi then shimered before revealing a smirking Naruto who was smirking at how easy it was to trick the Uchiha clan's best shinobi, well all he needed to do was repeat what Shisui just said to him to Itachi as Shisui and then watch as the madness unfold. Before leaving though he thought of something about how he deceived Shisui

' **Futon: Maboroshi no Sekai (the World of Illusions.)** my way to cast my own genjutsu field. Inside my zone of influence, he can control his opponent's senses the same way a classic genjutsu would but without the need to 'inject' his chakra into their brains. I mean what is sound, but the vibrations of air, what are images but the light pasing through the air and impacting on the retinas, I who controls the air can literally control their senses, the best part is that they can't tell that they are being tricked, since they are seeing what they are seeing and experiencing what they are experiencing, it's just not real. What an amusing paradox.'

So with a spring in his step Naruto left the clearing.

 **Flash Back end :**

And that was all it took for Naruto to handle the Uchiha clan and start Itach's punishement, now all he had to do was disappear with the wind. That was the reason that he chose to be on a team with Hatake Kakashi: first he is a jounin with a sharingan, that meant that a genjutsu was 'impossible' against him, so when he reported his death, the higher ups will believe it without further thought. Second, Uchiha Sasuke is so simple to manipulate, all he needed to do was show him up at every turn and let the moron stew in his own hatred, eventually the weakening was going to betray konoha, all he needed to do was make sure that he 'failed' the mission of retrieving him and let Kakashi take the bait: Naruto alone in a location after a battle with a 'superior' opponent, all he needed was put on a pink bow on gift wrap himself, and like an idiot Kakashi walked right into the trap.


	2. Chapter 2

**Redefined purpose.**

 **Disclaimer : I don't own Naruto, or any other character that might appear in this fanfic, they belong to Kishimoto and whoever made them in the first place. All I own are my own ieeas and plot. Props to Sinisteruto for the original story: A Broken Fox and a Caring Cat.**

 **Chapter 2: Recollections and Revelations.**

 **Akatsuki Hideout in the west...**

"Zetsu, why have you called an emergency meeting? I do hope that you have a valid reason for calling upon us on such short notice?" asked/threatened a holographic figure. The figure seems to be dressed in long ninja pants, a long cloak with cloud designs on it. He has spiky, messy hair and his eyes have a darkish pupil with concentric circles around the irises.

"Oh, we have very disturbing news, the kyubi jinchuuriki has perished and there are no signs of the kyubi reforming itself." Answered Zetsu, a plant like being with messy green hair and gold coloured eyes, with the right eye being pupil less, he also appears to have two different halves, a black left side and a white coloured right side of his body, and speaks as if he is two different people, the right side seems to represent the more mature personality of the two. The man appears to have a venus fly trap growing from his torso, extending beyond his head. The man is wearing the standard Akatsuki outfit with a black, high collard cloak with black clouds on it.

"..."

"..."

"..."

To say everyone was shocked was an understatement, even the normally stone faced Uchiha Itachi failed to hide is shock at the devastating news, his eyes wide in disbelief and surprise. Hoshigaki Kisame however smirked in amusement, being one to always take satisfaction whenever his partner tried and failed to hide his emotions, a rare but entertaining sight indeed.

"How did this happen?" asked the leader in a calm manner, being the first to recover from his shock, though everyone could feel the edge in his tone regardless of his calm demeaner.

"He has been murdered by Uchiha Sasuke during a retrieval mission. Sasuke has joined that vile vermin Orochimaru." Said Zetsu.

"Uchiha Sasuke has ruined our plans hn, for that, I will end his ugly existence and turn it into my beautiful art, hn, what do you think, Sasori no dana?" exclaimed Deidara enthusiastically.

"Why don't you ask Itachi, I don't give a damn about Uchiha Sasuke." Replied the man now identified as Sasori.

"Shut up you art freak! We don't need your stupid pop art, I will deliver his unrighteous soul to Jashin sama, ne Kakuzu?" exclaimed Hidan in anticipation.

"No, I refuse to participate in your religious nonsense." Replied Kakuzu in irritation.

"Why you...!"

"ENOUGH!" cut in Pein, leaking large doses of KI not directed at anyone in particular but felt by everyone nonetheless.

"Zetsu, where is the boy's body?" asked Pein, the leader of the organisation.

"His body has not been recovered yet, Konoha hunter nin have been searching the valley of the end for days now." Explained Zetsu.

"I see, Itachi, Kisame, I want the two of you to eliminate those hunter nin and find his body before they do, understood?" instructed the leader.

"Hai, leader sama!" answered the duo.

"Good, you are all dismissed.."

"If I may ask, what do you intend to do with the boy's body, leader sama?" asked the stoic Uchiha

"I will resurrect him and see if the kyubi will return with him, if it doesn't, than I will interrogate him for the information of its whereabouts." Stated Pein, giving the Uchiha an unnerving stare.

"..."

"..."

"..."

"Um...leader, I was not aware you knew the impure world resurrection technique, I doubt a traitor like Orochimaru would have been forthcoming with that kind of information?" asked Itachi, everyone else wondering the same thing.

"I do not know that jutsu, I have a better one, one that is an actual resurrection, unlike the inferior Nidaime's Jutsu. Do not be surprised though, it is only natural that a God should wield this kind of power, now get going, I will say no more on this matter!" ordered Pein.

"Hai!" said Itachi respectfully as he, along with all the other holograms disappeared from the cave, leaving only Pein, his right hand, Konan, and Zetsu.

Not even a quarter of a minute later, a man dressed in the standard Akatsuki outfit with short spiky hair and an orange mask with one eye hole appears from a swirling vacuum of what appears to be a high level space time jutsu.

"Pein,Zetsu, Konan chan..." said the man in a raspy, mocking voice, greeting his subordinates/partners.

"Madara/Tobi." Said Zetsu and Pein simultaneously, Konan choosing to remain silent, refusing to acknowledge the unappreciated and in her eyes, disrespectful manner to which she was addressed.

"What are we going to do about this, if Itachi and Kisame are unable to find the boy's body?" asked Pein.

"Do not trouble yourself, I have a plan B, for now, we will continue with business as scheduled." Answered the masked figure.

"What are we going to do about Uchiha Sasuke, perhaps he knows the location of the jinchuuriki's body? Or maybe Orochimaru took it to use as one of his experiments?" asked Zetsu.

"You will leave Sasuke alone, I have big plans for that boy, our goals have not changed, we will conduct our business as usual, if there's nothing else, I would like be on my way." Said Madara as he disappeared into a swirling portal, not even giving his subordinates a chance to object to his ubrupt departure.

"I'm out of here, see around Konan san, Leader sama." Said Zetsu before disappearing into the ground.

"Pein, I don't trust that Uchiha." Stated Konan. Pein just stared at his confidant inquisitively, if there was anyone who had his absolute trust and confidence, it was definitely her, and he didn't ever question her judgement, she was almost always accurate in her observations. If she didn't think someone was trustworthy, than that person was already a traitor in his eyes.

"Which Uchiha?" asked Pein neutrally.

"Both of them." Stated Konan with conviction.

"I understand your doubts about Madara, but Itachi?" asked Pein, raising one eyebrow at Konan.

"When we approached Itachi, his actions beforehand had indicated that he was severely unstable, violent, and homicidal, after all, who massacres his own entire clan just for the sake of testing his abilities? But..."

"But what?" asked Pein curiously.

"This Itachi is completely different from what we have been led to believe, he was too much emotional and self control, I don't believe for a second that this is the person that supposedly snapped and eliminated his loved ones, nor do I believe that he is as cruel or violent as he pretends to be, according to Kisame, and from what I have observed myself, Itachi is a pacifist who will try by all means to complete his goals without conflict, using violence as a last resort, once again a complete contradiction to what we have been led to believe. I also do not like the way he looks at you..." stated Konan with an uncharacteristic frown on her otherwise neutral facial expression.

"The way he looks at me?" asked Pein with a confused and uncertain undertone.

"I ahh...that's not what I meant!" shouted Konan, an uncharacteristic tinge of red forming on her cheeks.

"Oh...what did you mean then?" asked Pein, almost sighing in relief.

"I meant that he always seems to be sizing you up, like he wants to know all the secretes of your powers, as if he is preparing himself to fight you one day, he is very subtle about it, but have you noticed how much interest he seems to show whenever there is mention of your abilities. He also seems to always try to get involved whenever you personally handle missions, have you not noticed that?" asked Konan.

"No, I hadn't, I appreciate your bringing this to my knowledge, I'll have zetsu keep an eye on him. If he should betray us, than he will have to face my rath, Kami's rath!" said Pein with conviction.

"Good, but don't underestimate him." Warned Konan.

"I do not underestimate anyone, now let us go, we have work to do." Ordered Pein as his solute disappeared from the cave, not giving Konan a chance to reply.

 **Unspecified Location...**

Two individuals, sitting cross legged on two boulders opened their eyes simultaneously. One is a very tall and muscled man with a distinctive shark-like appearance complete with blue skin, small, round white eyes, gill like markings under his eyes and the trademark sharp, triangular teeth of The Seven Swordsman of the Mist. His dark blue hair is styled in the shape of a shark fin with a personalised forehead protector that also covers his ears, and is dressed in the standard Akatsuki outfit with a giant sword on his back. This man goes by the name Hoshigaki Kisame, otherwise known as The Monster of the Mist.

The other man is a significantly shorter 19 year old individual of average height with intense, dark eyes and black hair that hangs near his cheeks to frame his face with the rest kept in a pony tail which is obscured by the high collar of his cloak. The man is also dressed in the standard outfit of the organisation and is known by the name Uchiha Itachi, The Clan Slayer.

"Hehehe, I can't believe the kyubi jinchuuriki died, he didn't strike me as one who would die so easily, despite his lack of skill, he had quite a strong fire. Though, I guess even with the power of the Kyubi, he wasn't enough to take out a talented Uchiha, your brother is something else, ne Itachi? " asked Kisame with his trademark toothy grin in place, not even attemting to hide his amusement.

"Naruto kun had many admirable character traits, but intelligence was not one of them, with overwhelming power without the brains to use it effectively, Naruto kun never stood a chance, in the end, if Sasuke had not been able to win, than he would have not been worthy as a rival to test my abilities." Stated Itachi with ice cold indifference, now walking side by side with his companion.

"Tche...you're as cold as ever Itachi san, demo...I wonder, what are you going to do now?" asked Kisame.

"We are going to fire country to retrieve Naruto kun's body, that is what Leader ordered is it not?" asked Itachi rhetorically.

"Hehe...of course, but that isn't what I was talking about, you know Deidara and Hidan are out for your brother's blood, what are you going to do about it?" asked Kisame, his eyes dancing in amusement and anticipation.

"Nothing..." stated Itachi dispassionately.

"Nothing...?" asked Kisame, digging up for a more detailed explanation.

"Don't make me repeat myself Kisame, as I said before, If Sasuke is unable to defeat opponents that are weaker than me, than he is unworthy of our rivalry, I would then have to find someone else to test my abilities against." Stated Itachi indifferently.

"Heh, I guess that makes sense." Agreed Kisame, choosing to remain silent from then on.

Despite his outward stone cold and uncaring mannerisms, the same could not be said about his state of mind, this was far too troublesome a situation for Itachi to take lightly.

"My foolish little brother, what have you gotten yourself into? How am I to protect you like this? I wonder how Kaa chan, Kushina sama, and Sensei will handle these disturbing news? Will Naruko chan and her family want revenge? And should that happen, can I really blame them? But most importantly, who will I protect if it came to that?" Thought the Uchiha Clan Slayer.

 **Flash Back start.**

"No no no! This can't be happening, this isn't happening, no no no!" screamed Mikoto hysterically with the bloody head of her dead husband, Uchiha Fugaku cradled on her lap. She is a unique beauty who has long black hair with black eyes. She is wearing a dark purple blouse with a red-plum skirt and a light yellow apron over it, though now dyed red with her husband's blood.

"Sochi kun, why...why are you doing this to your own family! Was I really that horrible of a mother to you, why!" wailed the ravern haired beauty in anguish and heartache, staring through her blood red sharingan eyes in disbelief.

"Why? That should be the least of your worries, when I am done with you, I am going to dispose of your little Sasuke chan, and then, the Uchiha Clan will be no more." Stated Itachi in a voice colder than the mountains of snow country.

"No please! Please anything but my sochi kun! I don't know why you're doing this, what has happened to you, but please, if you ever loved me as your kaa chan, if you ever loved sasuke chan as your brother, please spare him! Please...all I ever wanted was to raise the two of you to the best of my abilities, please, you may do as you want with me, but please take care of your brother, take care of each other, this is all a mother can wish for, Itachi kun, please..." asked Mikoto in resignation, swallowing her pride to beg for her beloved son's life, to protect her child...from her child.

"You disgust me!" said Itachi, it was said with such an even tone but the undertone was loaded with sincere loathe and disgust.

"W-what!" asked Mikoto wide eyed.

"I used to respect you, I used to look up to you when I starting my education as a shinobi, I wanted to be just like you, but now...look at you, look how far you have fallen." Stated Itachi emotionlessly.

"W-what do you mean sochi? I-I don't understand?" asked Mikoto with a confused and tearful expression.

"It is just as I said, you disgust me, your clansmen have been slaughtered, your husband, tou san would have died anyway, but he might have had a chance had you not gotten in his way, had you instead supported him as any wife should, instead all you were was a burden to him, what happened to you, you used to be one of the most promising kunoichi in this village, yet here you are snivelling on the ground and begging for your son to be spared instead of fighting for his safety, instead of fighting to protect him, you are taking the easy way out, practically begging me to kill you and leaving him alone in this world. You've lost your edge, you've let yourself go over the peaceful years, when you get to the afterlife, remember this, your family died because they had a weak wife, and a weak mother." Said Itachi, unsheathing his tanto from his back.

Meanwhile everything started to happen in slow motion for Mikoto, she couldn't believe it, her son was right, she was weak and pathetic, her husband took the blow that was meant for her, everyone died because of her. She was the matriah of the Uchiha Clan for kami's sake, she had been supposed to lead by example, everyone looked up to her for guidance, direction, and inspiration, she was the measuring yardstick for the clan and because she was weak, so was the rest of the clan, this was all her fault, her clan, her husband, and now her sasuke chan would die because of her, the guilt, shame, and regret was too much, it was consuming her.

"Aaaaaahhhhhh!" screamed Mikoto, holding her right eye in pain, feeling a strong acid like burning sensation in her right eye, which ended just as she thought it would never end.

'So it is happening, finally.' Thought Itachi with a small, almost invisible smile on his face, his sharingan spinning wildly in anticipation.

"You're right, thank you sochi, for showing me the errors of my ways, but now I will have to kill my heart and eliminate you, to preserve the honour of my clan, to protect myself, but most importantly, to protect Sasuke chan." said Mikoto while rising onto her feet, adopting a serious and emotionless demeanor as opposed to her previously hysterical one, staring intently with her left, three tamoe sharingan spinning wildly while her right sharingan eye adopted the design of a three pronged shuriken.

"Finally, someone to test my abilities, Kaa chan, I shall defeat you here and take your eye for myself, so that I my become complete, you know right, those eyes, will become my knew eyes once I have defeated you, hehehe ahahahahaha!" laughed Itachi hysterically.

'Sochi, I always thought that I would cherish the day that you showed people a bit more of your emotions, how wrong I was, this is not quite what I imagined it would be like.' Though Mikoto, a lone tear falling from her right eye.

"Now Kaa chan, there is no better time than now, let us fight to the death, become the ultimate test for my abilities." Said Itachi charging his kaa chan with his tanto in hand.

Mikoto, with lightning fast reflexes unsheathed her husband's katana and charged at her son with equal vigour, aiming for his vital organs.

SQUELCH!

Was the sound as Itachi pierced his mother's heart, having ducked below her amateurish horizontal slash.

"Gwah...urgh!" screamed Mikoto in pain, gurgling blood up her throat.

"..."

"..."

"..."

"That...was very anticlimactic." Stated Itachi apethetically, trying to conceal his disappointment.

"Gwah!" grunted Itachi, spitting out globes of blood from his mouth. Wondering what happened, Itachi looked down only to see a long katana protruding from his chest.

" **Shatter: Kyoka Suigetsu**!" whispered Mikoto in Itachi's ear.

Cr...Cr...Crack!

Was the sound as the Mikoto he had stabbed shattered into minuscule pieces, along with the rest of the world surrounding Itachi, showing that he had in actual fact stabbed on thin air, with his mother piercing him with a Katana from behind.

"Kyoka...cough... Suigetsu?" asked Itachi between coughing fits, turning his head sideways to look at his mother.

"Hai, this is the ultimate genjutsu of my mangyeko sharingan, with this power, I can manipulate all of your senses to make you see, hear, smell, taste and even feel whatever I want you to, you were destined to lose the second you made eye contact with me, this is my Absolute Hypnosis. Its over sochi kun, rest in peace." Said Mikoto before ripping her katana across her son's torso, only for him to scatter into a numerous number of crows.

'What is this! A genjutsu, but when...?" thought Mikoto.

"Behind you, Kaa chan." Said Itachi, aiming a decapitating slash on his mother with his tanto, only for his mother to once again shatter into a million pieces.

"That was my line." Said Mikoto from Itachi's right side, decapitating her son in the process, her son who had instead tried to block an identical attack from a mirage she had created to appear on his left, at least that is what would have happened had he not managed to dodge in the last second, earning a deep gash on his torso for his trouble but escaping certain death nonetheless.

"How!" asked Mikoto, enraged that Itachi had dodged her attack despite her absolute hypnosis, also taking note that he now also had a shuriken shaped sharingan, staring at it with her own identical eye, blood flowing down her right cheek from her eye, a sign of the over excursion of her abilities.

" **Amateresu (Heavenly illumination)**!" said Itachi, ignoring her question completely, choosing rather to send his black, unquenchable flames after her.

'Oh no! No no no, I didn't get the chance to activate kyoka suigetsu, I won't be able to dodge in time!' thought Mikoto frantically.

'No! I will not die here, I need to save Sasuke chan!' though Mikoto with a great amount of resolve, feeling the familiar sensation on her left eye, a sensation she had felt when she activated her right mangyeko sharingan. That was also the last thought she had before getting sucked into a portal, allowing the ameteresu to pass by her previous location as she appeared 20 metres behind her son through another portal, the ultimate fire technique hitting the building that was previously situated behind her.

Itachi, sensing the excessive chakra usage, quickly turns around to face his mother, wary of any surprise attacks she might launch with her new powers.

"You were able to dodge my attack when I attempted to decapitate you, in fact, you were even able to fool me with your crow clone even earlier than that, despite being caught in my absolute hypnosis, how is that possible?" asked Mikoto in between ragged breaths.

'Damnit I don't know how much more of this I can take, I'm out of shape and I'm not used to this new sharingan, I'll die from chakra exhaustion if this fight drags on for too long, I cannot even use Kyoka Suigetsu until I figure out how he was able to counter it, how was it even possible for him to do it, my jutsu is flawless, there shouldn't be any blind spots.' Thought Mikoto in frustration and a little panic.

"What is that jutsu, how did you get there, I know it wasn't that genjutsu you used, you somehow transported yourself didn't you?" asked Itachi forcefully, completely ignoring her own question.

'Did she use Madara sama's space time migration? No...that's not it, her transportation was a lot faster than Madara's jutsu, it was something else?' thought Itachi.

"Tell you what, I'll propose a trade, you tell me how you escaped my attacks even though you were under my hypnosis, and I'll tell you the name of my jutsu." Offered Mikoto hopefully.

'Urg who am I kidding, this wouldn't work even against a genin, it is obvious that I stand more to gain from this trade than he does, and even if he were to agree, he knows that there is no guarantee that I would comply after he has told me what I want to know.' Thought Mikoto dejectedly.

"An information trade, interesting, I see, very clever of you..." said Itachi.

"W-what, what do you mean clever?" asked Mikoto

"Because you have just recently discovered your power, this means that you yourself do not understand its full capabilities and limitations as you have not had the opportunity to train and practise with it, so you're using it on mostly pure instinct as it is. This is why you are unable to figure out why I was able to defeat it, and this is why you're hesitant to use it again, because you're afraid that your own jutsu might be used against you. So what do you do, you propose a trade, sometimes, the name of a jutsu can tell you a great deal about what it actually does, and from that, you can come to certain conclusions about how it is executed and its capabilities and limitations, You're willing to give away information about an even more unfamiliar jutsu to you, that expends almost twice as much chakra as your other jutsu, so that you can regain your advantage with the more familiar jutsu to you, Kyoka suigetsu, which is also less chakra extensive and easier to use, is that right, Kaa chan?" asked Itachi in an emotionless, but almost cocky manner.

"So you figured it out, big deal, what is your decision?" asked Mikoto heatedly, embarrassed that the little runt had seen through her plan, despite having expected it to happen anyway.

"Hmm...this won't change the outcome of the battle, so I might as well tell you, I replaced myself with a crow clone the second I saw your new sharingan as a precaution, I didn't want to be caught by surprise by your new abilities, this is why you were fooled by my crow clone when you decided to attack, though if I am not mistaken, you had already captured me in your jutsu the second I laid eyes on you. Nevertheless, I figured out the secrete to your jutsu after you told my clone a little about it, thinking that you had killed me..." said Itachi, pausing to give Mikoto a chance to digest the information.

"Damnit, I only told him because I thought it was over, I should have known better!" thought Mikoto, chasticing herself for her amateurish mistake.

"You said that you were able to manipulate all of a person's senses, but that was a lie, your jutsu does not give you the abilities to manipulate a person's senses, but the ability to manipulate a person's sense organs instead." Said Itachi, ironically taking the persona of a father scolding his daughter.

"What! Is that not the same thing?" asked Mikoto with incredulity.

"Not quite, I know this because despite your absolute hypnosis, I was still able to sense your chakra normally, I used the shinobi's ability to sense chakra to determine your true location, you see, there is no specific sense organ found in the human anatomy that allows a person to sense chakra, people generally use different methods to do it. This is why I was able to conclude that you were not directly manipulating what I should sense, but you were manipulating the reactions of my sense organs, and this is how I was able to avoid a critical injury." Stated Itachi aphethitically.

"But I was still able to injure you...oh...I see, even if you can sense my true location, you can't completely ignore your other senses, if you feel like someone is standing behind you, or if you hear the swishing sound of a sword about to decapitate you, you cannot help but to react because that is what you have been trained to do your whole life, that is why you initially went after the false image and only later reacted to my true presence, despite already knowing where the real me was through your chakra sensing abilities." Said Mikoto in contemplation.

"What was that jutsu you used to transport yourself." Demanded Itachi.

" **Space Gliding Goddess!** " said Mikoto with a smirk on her face before disappearing into a portal once again, quickly appearing in front of her son and piercing her son through his back, her son who had turned around anticipating an attack from his blind spot, having sense a portal opening behind him.

"This is it, sochi kun." Said Mikoto with tears in her eyes.

"Gwuh...You got me, I see, you can somehow open more than one portal at a time, you used this ability, to open a portal in my blind spot, naturally, I would turn to face the other way, expecting you to come out of said portal, but instead you had planned to open another in front of me, attacking me from the side I had already been facing, very good Kaa chan, but what are you going to do now that you're out of chakra?" asked Itachi casually, as if there wasn't a sword stabbed through his lower back, something that sent all kinds of warning bells to mikoto's instincts, and rightly so because the next thing she knew was her son once again turning into crows.

"Impossible, I was watching you the whole time, when did you use a clone!" asked Mikoto helplessly, the strain of using so many high level jutsu too much for her to even sustain her normal sharingan anymore, never mind her ultimate sharingan.

"It is not a clone, but a genjutsu." Said Itachi as the world shimmered around her, revealing her healthy, traitorous son standing right in front of her, though she was now too weak to do anything about it, her eyes having turned back to their usual black colour.

"This is what I have been waiting for, let me show you my ultimate genjutsu, Tsukiyomi!" said Itachi.

The last thing Mikoto remembered was standing in front of her son in her weakened state only to find herself in a strange world, tied to a cross with her son staring at her with what she concluded were evil eyes.

"This is Tsukiyomi, in this world I control the time and space, I am god, you will now have the pleasure of watching me butcher your husband over and over again for 72 hours starting...now...71 hours 59 minutes and 59 seconds, 72 hours 59 minutes and 58 seconds..."

"Gwaaaah! Please stop, please...please stop this, please just kill me, please just do it already, I don't want to see this.!" Screamed Mikoto in pain and sorrow.

'Damnit, why isn't it working, maybe I should try something different...' thought Itachi.

"Now, you will see what I am going to do to your son...34 hours 40 hours and 43 seconds..."

"Nooooooooo! Sasuke chan, I won't let you do this!" thought Mikoto, lifting her head up to stare at her son in fury and disgust, unconsciously activating both her mangyeko eyes.

"Let...me GO!" screamed Mikoto, sending tremors all around and shattering parts of the Tsukiyomi world.

'This is it.' Thought Itachi, trying valiantly to prevent her from breaking his jutsu.

"Gwah!" screamed Itachi as he was pushed a few metres away from his Kaa chan, his left eye bleeding profusely, finding himself back into the real world, looking through his right eye at his Kaa chan, who is now surrounded by a skeletal looking apparition.

'She's activating sasuno'o, that's good, time to end this.' Thought Itachi warily only for Mikoto to collapse on the floor, the apparition disappearing from around her.

 **2 minutes later...**

"Kaa chan...Kaa chan wake up!" whispered Itachi harshly, slapping Mikoto acrass the face lightly.

"Mmmm...hmmmm..."

"Kaa chan I killed Sasuke!" said Itachi.

"What!" screamed Mikoto, opening her eyes wide only to find her head resting comfortably on her homicidal son's lap.

"Uh...Ahhhh!" screamed Mikoto, trying and failing to jump away from the source of her nightmares.

"Shhhh...Kaa chan, try to relax, there's something important I need to tell you, but I need you to remain calm and listen carefully, we do not have a lot of time." Explain Itachi in a polite manner in order not to sound like a homicidal maniac, though his politeness only freaked her out even more, only her shinobi training allowing her to suppress her instinct to scream for help.

"Kaa chan, I never intended nor will I kill Sasuke, so you do not have to worry about anything. I only killed off the clan because they were planning a coupe against the Hokage and the village, I was assigned the mission to eliminate the threat to the village, which unfortunately was our clan." Explained Itachi, watching the varying emotions displayed on her face, shock, disbelief, understanding, and then contemplation.

"Kaa chan look at me!" said Itachi forcefully.

"I can't bring myself to kill you, or Sasuke, I –I couldn't allow you to die, that is why I volunteered to fulfil this mission myself, in order to protect you. But to do that, I had to make you strong, I had to pretend that I wanted to kill you and Sasuke, and to make you feel guilty, like it was your fault that everything happened, so that you could activate your mangyeko sharingan, I didn't mean what I said, I-I'm sorry, Kaa chan." Said Itachi with tears freely flowing down his cheeks.

"Sochi kun, its ok...I'm a little confused, and I have many questions, but I think I understand a bit...I...I think I can forgive you with time, you're my son after all, so please...do not cry, be a strong boy for Kaa chan!" said Mikoto, lifting her hand up to brush the tears away from her son's face.

"A-arigatou Kaa chan, but...you need to go..." said Itachi, standing on his feet after placing his mother gently on the ground.

"I'm going to call for help, Sensei's going to take you to a safe place." Said Itachi, pulling out a three pronged kunai from his weapons pouch and throwing it hard towards the ground...

"Finally, my part is done, now it is time to play your part Minato sensei!" said Itachi, throwing the kunai hard towards the floor, only for the immediate vicinity of the kunai to be illuminated by a yellow flash...

length bangs framing either side of his face. His outfit consists of a standard Konoha ninja uniform with two bands each on both of his sleeves, a green flak jacket and a konoha forehead protector. Over his outfit is a long, short sleeved white coat decorated by flame-like motifs on the lower edges, with the kanji for "Fourth Hokage" down the back and closed on the front by a thin orange rope.

"It has been a long time, Mikoto chan." Said the man nonchalantly, greeting Mikoto with a small wave.

Mikoto stared at the man that appeared out of nowhere in a bright flash of yellow with a shocked and horrified expression on her face. If she wasn't so exhausted she would have screamed her lungs hoarse in fear, how was this possible, she didn't know that ghosts really existed, weren't they supposed to be just myths, or was this some kind of cruel illusion that her son was using on her? Was he lying when he said that he wanted to protect her? That was the only logical explanation as far as she was concerned, there was no way that this was really the Yondaime Hokage.

"You shouldn't scare her like that Minato sensei, she has been through a lot recently. " explained Itachi in his usual emotionless monotone.

"I see, so it actually came to you having to do this, why the hell did Hiruzen let things degenerate this far?" asked Minato to himself, hands clenched in anger.

"We are all responsible for our own actions, at least for the most part, I don't blame Sandaime sama or the village for this tragedy, the clan chose their own actions and I chose mine, and so did the village hierarchy, we are all responsible for what happened here today." Said Itachi.

'Hiruzen, did my plans fail or did you completely ignore the instructions I left with Kushina with regards to dealings with the Uchiha clan and Uchiha Madara? Did it really have to come to this, that a thirteen year old kid would be required to carry this kind of burden?' thought Minato with a small frown on his face.

"Itachi, you're wrong, this is all my fault, if I had stayed than..."

"I know sensei..." said Itachi, cutting of the blonde former kage mid sentence.

"The relations between the clan and the village had improved a great deal during your short reign as the Hokage, and had you stayed, the village would have been aware of Madara's existence and thus, removing suspicion on the clan about the nine tails attack. The clan would have not been isolated and seen as a threat, and maybe they might have not felt cornered and forced to resort to a revolt against the village, I understand how and why you feel this way sensei, but..." trailed of the young Uchiha.

"Itachi..."

"Sensei, I don't blame you for what happened, I would have done the same in your shoes after what happened that day, Madara had the advantage over you because of his anonymity and timing, you had too many things to do, you had to protect Naruto kun and Naruko chan, while protecting Kushina sama as well as fighting the nine tails to protect the village. But that was not all, you still had to fight Madara and figure out his identity, devise a plan to deal with the fox, and make future plans at the same time. A difficult task that only you could have achieved, Madara's anonymity gave him an overwhelming advantage in that situation, you cannot plan for something if you do not even know of its existence, sensei, it is important to remember our reasons for doing what we've done and what we are going to be doing..." trailed off the young prodigy.

"..."

"..."

"..."

"To abandon your country and village is the same as abandoning your child, this was one of the first lessons you taught me, sensei. Which is better, to give your family a decade of happiness followed by a lifetime of misery and even death, or to sacrifice and live a decade of pain followed by a lifetime of happiness. I know you miss Naruto kun, and I know he and the village have suffered since your death, but we have to endure and persevere, you're the only one who can do it sensei, you can't come back yet and you can't take Naruto kun either, if you did, than Madara would probably speed things up and send the whole Akatsuki after you, he would never stop until he found Naruto, and by association, found you. It is best that Naruto kun stayed in the village for now, we need to keep your existence a secrete for as long as possible, the unpredictability of your existence will serve as a major trump card in this coming storm. This is the only step we have ahead of him." Explained Itachi

Minato sighed in bewilderment, trust his student to read his thoughts like an open book, really, was he that transparent or did his student simply know him that well? To top it off, even though he knew that Itachi was right, it didn't make him feel any better than he already felt, because despite what Itachi said about ten years of sacrifice and pain in exchange for a lifetime of happiness, he couldn't help but feel that things would not work out the way that they planned.

It was in fact not just a baseless feeling either, there were already signs that things would not go as perfectly as his prized student seemed to think they would. For one, Minato knew that Itachi's theory that the village would have stopped suspecting the Uchiha clan for the kyubi attack had they known about Madara was flawed, because he knew for a fact that Kushina had told the sandaime hokage about Madara before she left the village with Naruko. The fact that the village still blamed the clan for the attack meant one of two things, one, Hiruzen kept the information to himself and didn't tell the elders and the shinobi council, which was essentially consisting of the shinobi clan heads, the A.N.B.U Commander, and the Jonin Commander. Or two, he did tell the elders but not the shinobi council and they still suspected the clan regardless, maybe suspecting that the Uchiha clan already knew of Madara's existence and was in league with him. That would make more sense, Hiruzen himself never trusted the Uchiha clan, to have stayed in command of the village for as long as he did, decades, and not have fixed things in all that time meant only one thing to Minato, Hiruzen didn't try to fix things because he was happy with things as they were, even the Shodaime and Nidaime didn't trust the clan after madara attacked the shodaime all those years ago, even though the Uchiha had renounced madara's membership in the clan in favour of peace, in other words, betraying their leader in favour of the village and Senju Hashirama.

Minato didn't like to label himself as a prodigy or genius, but he was no fool, he knew exactly why Tobirama sama had given the Uchiha clan the honour of being the village's police force, it wasn't to show his respect or acknowledgement of the Uchiha's strength and service for the village as he made people believe, to even imply that to be the reason was an insult itself to not just the clan's strength, but their intelligence too if he expected them not to see his intentions, it was obvious that this was a ploy to keep an eye on the clan, and to suppress their potential. To understand Tobirama's plan, one needed to consult the nature of the role of a police officer and the science behind the strength of a shinobi, and even more specifically, the strength of an Uchiha.

For an example, to be a police officer of say, wave country, one is required to remain in wave country full time, as in live there and work on cases directly involved with the crimes taking place in wave country. In other words, you would be unlikely to leave wave country for any duration of time unless you were on vacation or on rare occasions, were required to collaborate with another country on an international or intercontinental crime. This meant that a police officer was for the most part, grounded to their place of occupation. Based on this information, it had not been hard for Minato to come to the conclusion that Tobirama had given the Uchiha clan this role to play in order to keep them inside of the village so that he can keep an eye on them, because as members of the police force, they couldn't leave the village to go on missions because their services were required inside the village.

To analyse the situation scientifically, it was important to take note of the shinobi biology. One example is the nature of chakra, which has a physical and spiritual component. A shinobi develops his physical chakra through physical training and his spiritual chakra through experience, which is attained through the many life and death battles that a shinobi has survived during missions or otherwise during war. But you couldn't properly develop this component of your chakra if you were stuck in the village handling civillian crime cases could you? There was nothing life threatening about that nor was there any chance of encountering any strong opponents because the A.N.B.U were there to handle the ninja related cases, and since the Uchiha's were required to join the police force when they became chuunin, it was incredibly difficult for them to attain the strength to match the strength of the legendary shinobi that Konoha has continuously produced over the years. Before Shisui, there hadn't been any kage level Uchiha shinobi produced in Konoha since Uchiha Madara, and even then, it had been only because of Shisui's involvement with Danzo and his R.O.O.T program that Shisui had been able to develop his skills with relative freedom to participate in difficult missions outside of the village. Minato may have allowed Danzo to train Shisui, but he had made it very clear that he would personaly eliminate Danzo if he placed one of his seals on Shisui's toungue. And then there was Itachi, whom Minato had secretly trained himself and Madara, ironically had helped too, teaching him all the secretes of the Mangyeko Sharingan.

Nonetheless, the situation contained further oppressive implications for a member of the Uchiha clan, if a person was unable to activate their sharingan before joining the police force at chuunin level, he or she would be faced with a situation where they could possibly never activate their bloodline limit. Why is that so?

It is because in order to activate his or her sharingan, a person needs to be faced with the real possibility of dying in a battle against a stronger and preferably, faster opponent. This requirement had made it almost impossible for a person to activate their doujutsu before they had to join the police force because of the nature of the missions that a genin participated in, for the most part d rank missions, which are nothing but ordinary chores that even a civilian could complete. An experienced genin could take on c rank missions, but that was still not dangerous or life threatening for a trained shinobi, as the only real danger a person could face was a bandit, which was for the most part, just a civilian with a mediocre weapon.

This caused a great deal of distress for the Uchihas, as the best chance to activate their prized bloodline limit became the chuunin examinations, but even then, one was not guaranteed to activate it during the tournament and even if they did, they would only have one or two tamoe by the end of the tournament, in which case if they passed the exam, which suspiciously, they always did get passed the first time around, they would be stuck with an immature sharingan, unable to activate all tamoe because of the lack of real battle experience. This served to put the Uchiha clan in an awkward situation, as over the years, less and less members of the co-founding clan were activating their bloodline limits and those that did, were unable to fully activate or master their eyes and as an ultimate result, weakening the clan a great deal over the years.

And then there was the mangyeko sharingan, the Shodaime and Nidaime Hokage feared the Mangyeko Sharingan a great deal after Uchiha Madara's betrayal, Hashirama sama had been pushed to his limits for the first time in his life and almost lost the battle against the rebel Uchiha, what made them even more weary of the Uchiha's power, was the ability to control not just any bijuu, but the nine tailed demon fox itself. Tobirama knew that his brother, despite his strength, was not immortal, there would come a time that he would die, and when that time came, there would be no one else from the Senju clan that could control the fox, if the Uchiha clan were to raise another rebel Mangyeko user, than it could bring an end to the Senju clan if he or she got their hands on the fox and the Uchiha would seize power over the village, so he devised this elaborate plan that would prevent anyone from the clan from leaving the village, make it easy to keep an eye on the clan, weaken the clan and if possible, deny them access to their bloodline limit.

But it did not end there, there was still a chance that they could gain a mature sharingan despite his efforts, if so, then the plan would at the very least ensure that they did not gain access to the Mangyeko Sharingan, if they couldn't go out on dangerous missions, then they wouldn't lose any precious loved ones.

Some might wonder why the Nidaime Hokage would want to protect the loved ones of the very people whose strength he was trying to suppress. In order to understand this one needed to understand the scientific and biological traits of a human and an Uchiha human. For every emotion that a person feels, there is almost, if not always a subsequent physical response or reaction from the person's body. If you are sad or hurt, salty liquid flows out of your eyes in the form of tears. If you are angry or excited, your blood pressure rises, your heart beats faster, and your temperature rises amongst other things. As for an Uchiha, things can get a little bit more dangerous, if an Uchiha kills one of their loved ones, like any human being, they are bound to feel an overwhelming amount of sadness, sorrow, grief and guilt. These emotions at this level of intensity can produce a strong physical reaction to an Uchiha, particularly within the eyes of the select person, hence, the activation of the mangyeko sharingan.

But, did you really have to kill your loved ones yourself to feel these emotions, and subsequently, to activate an ultimate sharingan. What if you made a mistake during a mission and it resulted in the death of a loved one, would you not feel all these emotions, sadness, sorrow, grief, and most importantly, guilt?

It was certainly plausible, at least to the Nidaime Hokage and Minato had actually witnessed absolute proof of this when Shisui committed suicide in front of itachi, who as a result, activated his Mangyeko Sharingan because of the guilt he felt for not being able to protect his friend. Nonetheless the Nidaime Hokage's plan succeeded for the most part, and Sarutobi Hiruzen followed in his sensei's footsteps blindly, or maybe not so blindly, Minato had yet to fully comprehend the workings of the old man's mind but he was getting closer and closer to figuring him out as the years went by.

Minato was indeed a once in a life time genius, despite having never met the Shodaime and Nidaime Hokage, he had been able to figure them out even before he became Hokage, that is why he knew that Itachi was wrong by assuming that knowledge of Madara's existence would have made things better, because the Uchiha clan had been oppressed even before the nine tails attack eight years ago, and he had also been foolish when he thought that having Kushina pass on the message to the sandaime Hokage would have bought the clan time until he returned, the only way to have prevented this was if he had stayed and remained as Hokage of Konohagakure no saito.

Anyway the point is that Minato was aware that many of his and his student's plans were already failing, he failed to absolve the Uchiha clan of their oppression, ultimately resulting in their plans for a revolt and their ultimate demise, he failed to protect his prized student from the burden of killing his clan, he failed to protect Shisui, and failed his son the most. His plans for Tsunade and Jiraya to take care of Naruto Kun until his return had failed dismally, what made matters worse was that he knew about his son's circumstances but couldn't do anything about it, he couldn't even begin to explain something like this to Kushi chan, he didn't know how she would react, it had been hard enough to convince her to leave Naruto kun with her own cousin, if she knew that Tsunade wasn't raising him and was in fact not telling the whole truth in her letters, than things could get bad really fast. He was afraid that Kushina would try to forcefully take Naruto away from the village, something that Konoha, or the Sandaime would never allow, the situation could escalate and get out of control and could ultimately result in her death. But he would never allow that though, he would have to reveal himself and help her fend off Konoha, and then what? Become a missing nin? A Kage becoming a missing ninja? And what's more is that Madara, Akatsuki, Iwa, Kumo, and Konoha would be after him and his family, there was no way even he would be able to raise a family under those conditions.

So far none of his plans had turned out the way that he had planned and if he had learned anything from this, it was that humans are unpredictable and sometimes unreliable, there was no guarantee that things were going to turn out the way the planned them to be, that was why he had his doubts about their actions. But he would have to suppress those doubts and move forward because Itachi now needed him more than ever, konoha, the shinobi world, Mikoto, Sasuke, Kushina, Naruko and his son's safety rested upon their shoulders and they were not going to fail no matter what.

"You're right Itachi, I think I needed to hear that, Tajuu Kage Bunshin No Jutsu!" said Minato with his hands in a cross seal, creating four doppelgangers of himself.

"You know what you have to do, spread out!" ordered the blonde haired former Kage, watching his clones disappear with a body flicker.

"What are you doing sensei?" asked Itachi inquisitively.

"I'm going to set up one of my own barriers, it serves as both a chakra concealing and a space locking barrier, just in case." Explained Minato

"Space-locking? You want to prevent him from returning and discovering you, but, you're the only one capable of setting up that kind of barrier, he'll recognise it as yours and he'll realise you're alive, surely you realise that sensei? Asked Itachi.

"This is not what you think it is Itachi, the barrier is not made to stop him from discovering me, it is made to stop him from escaping me, escaping us, if he comes back, the only way for him to escape will be to defeat the both of us." Lectured Minato.

'A space time barrier that is locked only from the inside, allowing easy entrance through space time jutsu but impossible to leave using the same method, not only that but the same barrier is able to function as a chakra concealing cloak, preventing people from sensing the enivitable usage of high level jutsu and as a result, no one to interfere and get caught in the battle, you never seize to amaze me, sensei, in a way, I can't help but wish that Madara sama actually does return, we could end this now and forever if he did.'

"I see, sensei, I need you to take mother with you, but I'm going to need a body to replace her, were you able to acquire an appropriate jutsu?" asked the 13 year old prodigy.

"No, I already had a jutsu for that, the same one I used to fake my own death." Explained Minato.

"..."

"..."

"..."

"Sensei, it took you seven years to regain your strength after you used that jutsu..."

"The circumstances are different this time around Itachi, unlike me, your mother will not have half of her soul devoured by the shinigami..."

"What do you mean devoured by the shinigami! Itachi kun what is this man talking about, and why does he look like Minato kun!" screeched Mikoto frantically, staring at her son with fear, hope, and confusion, having finally recovered from her silent shock.

"Kaa chan, Minato sensei will take care of you and answer all of your questions, now...SLEEP..." said Itachi while looking at Mikoto straight the eyes, the tamoe in his eyes spinning rapidly around the pupil.

"A ...genjutsu...no please, I have to...see...if sasuke chan...is...safe...first..." trailed off Mikoto, trying to resist the inevitable genjutsu enforced sleep but in the end succumbing to the jutsu.

Minato, realising what Itachi had done quickly places a seal on Mikoto's wrist before going through a long series of hand seals.

"Forced Jutsu Activation." Said Minato at the end of the chain of handseals, causing the seal on Mikoto's wrist to glow bright blue for a few seconds.

"The seal I placed on her is now absorbing a small portion of her chakra to use as a base for the justu that I'm going to use." explained Minato for Itachi's benefit.

"Base for a jutsu?"asked Itachi with a quirked eyebrow.

"Hai, everybody has their own unique chakra frequency, or signal, but in spite of how different our chakra is, it is still human chakra regardless. This seal stores the chakra of the target, but the seal is linked to me, whatever jutsu I use while maintaining this link, the chakra signal will be converted by the seal to match that of the chakra that was absorbed and stored in the seal, and then the jutsu will be manifested with the chakra matching that of Mikoto's chakra signature, even though I am the one using the justu, and even though it is actually my chakra that is being expanded. Basically, it is a chakra converting seal. And don't worry about the jutsu deactivating, only I can deactivate it."explained Minato.

"I-I see."was all the Uchiha had to say, too shocked by the enginuity of such a jutsu to say anything more.

"Now Itachi, I'm going to need a quarter of a litre of your mother's blood to create the blood clone, and then I'm going to need you to kill the clone immediately, I've never tried this with a clone before, since the clone has an independent mind, we cannot be sure if it will follow mine or Mikoto chan's instructions." Explained Minato.

Itachi knew that his sensei was right, he had been wondering the same thing himself, If her blood and her chakra was used to make the clone, than why would it follow Minato sensei's instructions? Even if he was the only one who could deactivate the clone jutsu,that did not necessarily mean that the clone was obliged to follow his instructions. Itachi, realising that they were pressed for time, decided to speed things up, Sasuke was due to arrive soon and his time limit for the completion of the mission would come to an end soon, he would need to get out of here as soon as possible, to become a missing ninja and to join the Akatsuki as a spy for his sensei, for the sake of his village, and for the sake of his family and the ninja world.

"So, this is good bye, for now." Said Itachi, trying to conceal his emotions about being separated for such a long time from his kaa chan and pseudo Tou san, and about what he was about to do to his own little brother.

Everything went according to plan so far, he gained permission from the sandaime to spare his brother, he massacred the clan, manipulated his kaa chan into activating her ultimate sharingan, faked her death, organised for her to be taken care of by the person he trusts the most, he killed the blood clone and his kaa chan would be able to get the part of her soul trapped in the clone back when her fake body is cremated as promised by the sandaime upon his request that she not be buried but cremated, which would prompt Minato sensei to deactivate the jutsu once the clone died. Not even a hyuga would be able to tell that the body was a fake, when the blood clone dies, the chakra used to maintain the jutsu manifests itself as the chakra residue that is found in the chakra coils of all corpses, a hyuga would not find this to be suspicious because he or she would have expected to see this chakra residue within the chakra coils of the corpse. This was in effect, the ultimate fake corpse jutsu. Now all he had to do was to take care of his brother and be gone.

"Itachi, how is he, how's my son doing lately, have things gotten any better?" asked Minato, this was the first thing that he wanted to know, but he had saved it for last because of the situation, but now he was at his limit.

Itachi only looked down at that, this was the question that he was also dreading to answer. It did not matter how much his sensei told him that it was not his fault, he couldn't help it but to feel responsible for the blonde's suffering, he failed to even convince his own little brother to befriend his sensei's son. It was no secret that the blonde had absolutely no friends inside the village or anywhere for that matter.

He and his mother both tried to help the blonde though whenever they could. Actually, Mikoto had attempted on many occasions to adopt the blonde bundle of energy into the family as her third son. Not only would she be able to provide him with everything he needed, but he would also have the protection of a powerful clan behind him and receive the proper training he deserved. Even Fugaku had supported the idea and even encouraged Mikoto not to give up until she succeeded with her attempts, though Itachi had suspected that he might have had a different motive than his Kaa chan did.

Nevertheless none of her attempts to adopt little Naruto kun were even considered by the sandaime hokage, in fact, her efforts had only served to further isolate the clan from the rest of the village because the sandaime Hokage and his advisers only saw this as further proof that the Uchiha clan were responsible for the kyubi attack and were now trying to retrieve the kyubi by adopting its jinchuuriki into the clan.

"I'm sorry sensei, but not much has changed. Not many people are willing to be associated with him and those that do are kept at a distance from him by Sandaime sama. Ironically, it is because not many are willing to be associated with him that the ones that are end up visiting Ibiki. Sandaime sama believes that those that are willing to be associated with him have ulterior motives and so refuses them access to Naruto kun, further isolating him from the village. I tried to take him in as an apprentice six months ago but I was refused, Hokage sama insisted that Jiraiya sama would come back at any moment and take him in as a student. Up until now I've been protecting him from a distance, but there is only so much I can do while remaining anonymous and without alerting his A.N.B.U guards and sometimes being forced to leave the village for weaks on missions. I'm sorry sensei." Apologised the Uchiha genius.

"I see." Said Minato, looking at the ground in sadness.

"What about Sasuke, is he also to come with us?" asked Minato.

"No, Sasuke will remain here in konoha." Said Itachi with determination in his eyes, eyes that showed that nothing short of devine intervention would succeed in changing his mind.

"Itachi, are you sure about this? I don't see why I couldn't take Sasuke kun with us, we could easily make another fake corpse for him." Asked Minato, carrying Mikoto in his arms bridal style with concern in his eyes, not even trying to hide his concern for his apprentice and surrogate son.

"No sensei, Sasuke can never be allowed to find out about the truth of what happened here today, the Uchiha clan is a noble, proud, and loyal clan of the great village of Konoha, I need Sasuke to maintain this belief and become konoha's greatest protector, and to do that for him, I need to give him a dream, an important goal in his life, to become strong enough to defeat the one who betrayed and murdered his clan, to rebuild the Uchiha clan of Konoha and to become so strong that there will never be another massacre for as long as he is alive and thereafter, this is the only way I can do this for him, this bond of hatred between us will be his salvation in the end, and he'll become one of the greatest heroes of konoha for defeating one of the village's worst criminals." Said Itachi with convinction.

'Itachi, there is nothing I can do to change your mind about this is there? Sigh...you're not the one that is going to have to explain this to Mikoto, I'm the one that's going to have to deal with her righteous fury.' Thought Minato fearfully.

"I see, in that case, let me be on my way, good luck Itachi." Said Minato.

"Minato sensei!" said Itachi hastily, stopping the blonde legend from vanishing with his Kaa chan.

"Yes, Itachi, what is it?" asked Minato with concern, it was not like his student to hesitate, no matter what the circumstances, Itachi was the epitome of emotional control and professionalism. The fact that he was delaying his departure sent warning bells ringing into his ears, perhaps this whole ordeal was too much for him to deal with alone, he was only thirteen years old after all.

"Sensei, you do realise what is going to happen when Okaa chan and Kushina sama meet don't you, how do you plan do deal with it?" asked Itachi.

"Huh...?" was Minato's intellectual reply, it seems his student wasn't at the brink of an emotional breakdown after all.

Itachi sighed at his sensei's cluelessness. For all his intelligence and perceptiveness, his sensei was sometimes completely clueless when it came to predicting the emotional reactions of the people closest to him.

"Sensei, Kushina sama is going to find out that you lied about Naruto's status in the village hidden in the leaves, or rather, that you didn't say anything about his status, you do know that one of the first questions okaa chan is going to ask her is why she left Naruto kun alone in the village... don't you?" asked Itachi.

Minato felt like the whole world was collapsing on him when he heard that. Visions of a giant, demonic Kushina with red eyes, elongated fangs and clawed hands plucking out his limbs one by one screeming about betrayal and making him pay for hurting her sochi kun assaulted his mind. He was so frightened he almost dropped the beautiful Uchiha matriah, whom he was carrying bridal style in his arms in preparation for his departure.

"I'm going to die aren't I!"

"Probably." Said Itachi.

"Fuck!" cursed Minato.

 **Flash Back end.**

"Get ready Itachi san, we're almost there." Said Kisame, breaking his ice cold partner from is trip through memory lane, they had been travelling for almost 6 hours now in silence, something Kisame had initially struggled to get used to, but had come to adapt to his teenage partner's silent preferences over time.

"Hmm...Kisame, I'll take care of the hunter ninja, you and Samehada just focus on finding Naruto kun's body, your under water abilities are afterall the main reason that we were chosen for this specific mission, understood?" ordered the Uchiha with an aura of authority.

"Tche... why do you always get all the fun, can't I at least chop off just a few of their limbs before you fight them?" whined Kisame childishly, though never loosing his trademark predatory grin.

"Kisame...!" warned Itachi.

"Hai hai hai, It has been a long time since the last time me and Samehada went for a swim anyway." Grumbled Kisame.

"Good." Replied Itachi.

"This is good, this will give me a chance to send one of the crows to inform sensei about the fate of his son without Kisame's notice." Thought Itachi with a bit of relief.


	3. Chapter 3

**Redefined purpose.**

 **Disclaimer : I don't own Naruto, or any other character that might appear in this fanfic, they belong to Kishimoto and whoever made them in the first place. All I own are my own ideas and plot. Props to Sinisteruto for the original story: A Broken Fox and a Caring Cat.**

 **Chapter 3: Recollections and Revelations part 2.**

 **Unknown location in fire country.**

Naruto was walking in the forest of fire country for a few days now, he was no longer using his **kage henge (Shadow transformation)** a varient of **henge (transformation)** that was better than normal in that it was a real transformation as opposed to a genjutsu like the normal jutsu. Gone was the short orange wearing idiot that he masqueraded as, in his place a tall young man with a thin build and long blonde hair, which descends past his shoulders and blue eyes. His usual attire consists of a hooded-cloak, a calf-length trench coat with dark green fur running down from his left collar to the front of the coat, a green belt with a golden belt buckle, along with white trousers and shoes. In a black scabbard, decorated with white lillies, by his side Naruto's sword **Ryuuzume (dragon claw)** , a katana with a black blade with a red hamon, its red hamon is Kanemoto style, having the appearance of a saw or sharp teeth. The sword's cross guard is rectangular, with the corners cut off, decorated by a pattern of cherry petals and lines, and each sports a dark-blue handle. It had been a week since his death and now he was certain that the news had reached everyone concerned. As he was walking he couldn't help but remember the first person he killed in his long personal vendetta: Hiruzen Sarutobi.

 **Flash Back start.**

It had been a day since the invasion of Konoha by Oto and Suna. An invasion that had been repelled by the the village hidden in the leafs. But now at great costs of many shinobi, but not a single loss was greater than the loss of the beloved Sandaime Hokage: Hiruzen Sarutobi, the **Kami no Shinobi (God of Shinobi)** and the professor, a man feared by his enemies and loved by his allies but respected by all, the longest running kage of Konoha and a grandfather to all.

Anyway, it was night time and as per protocole there was a curfew in place. And everyone respected said curfew. In front a small seemingly abandonned building in the northern end of the village stood two silent ANBUs that were dressed in standard Konoha anbu uniforms, which consists of a grey flak jacket, metal arm guards and gloves, ninja sandals with spikes for travelling into mountainous regions, three ninja pouches on their back-waist and a signature spiral tattoo on their shoulder and of course the animal masks, one was a dragon the other was a rat. The ANBU didn't know what they were guarding and as per their training they didn't care, for them it was a mission like so many others before. But like any Shinobi they couldn't remove a weakness that most soldiers have: their guard wasn't one hundred percent up since they were in their own territory. That was the only flaw they had in their seemingly flawless stance and that was why they didn't react when two sword appeared and pierced their hearts, if their masks were removed, and if anyone was there they would have seen their eyes widening in surprise and pain. The swords were quite peculiar, they took the form of long and slender rapier-like swords with blades measuring over one meter and extremely short hilts, looking more likely to be used to thrust than slash at the opponent. The ANBU fell to their knees clutching their chests and saw a tall individual with a thin build walking towards them, he is dressed in a hooded-cloak, a calf-length trench coat with dark green fur running down from his left collar to the front of the coat, a green belt with a golden belt buckle, along with white trousers and shoes. The hooded covered the individual's head so they had no idea who it was. The individual stops walking when he reached them and said

"I am very sorry about this but you guys are simply in the way, **Banbutsu no Fukai (Rotting of All Creation)** " before extending his right arm towards them and forming a purple fog that covered the ANBU. Without looking back, the individual continued walking while ignoring the fact that said fog was corroding both ANBUs bodies, and in less than a minute nothing remained of them, not even a trace. Once inside the building the individual removed his hood, revealing bond hair and blue eyes, Naruto as it was without a doubt him, kneeled on the ground and touched it with his right hands pointer finger, and started using sensing to located his query. As he was looking for his target using his advanced sensors abilities, he remembered what he did to the guards outside.

That was one of the only pros of being in the Konoha orphanage system. The constant poisoning, for the first three years if his life, Naruto's stalles food was poisoned food, starting with poisoned mud as as a baby to three days expired milk with cyanide, thrice the lethal dosage if I might add. When he was kicked out at the beginning of winter when he was three years old, he spent a whole year living in the streets and eating from the garbage, funny thing is, in a small village like konoha, news travel fast, and less than a month later, everyone knew he was living on the streets, instead of helping him, people started poisoning their garbage hoping to kill him, that didn't work because of being a jinchuriki. Instead it gave birth to an ability that he called **Fushoku (corrosion).**

Naruto's body started converting his chakra into a corrosive power that eats away at the enemies flesh. Should it comes into contact with matter or living organisms, it causes corrosion and deterioration. If an enemy is wounded by the power, they experience a lethal side effect that causes their body to rot.

That due to its potentiel became Naruto's second favorite one, right behind his **Geneiken (Illusion swords).** Anyway while he was thinking about the past and what he gained, he found his target, and also made a headcount of all the security in the building, sighing Naruto made three **Kagebunshin** who already knew what to do before going down stairs.

 **Scene change :**

The team leader, an assumption that Naruto made because the man was wearing a white cloak, was wearing a hawk mask and was standing guard in front of a steel door that contained who he was here for. Naruto formed a sword in his right hand before throwing said weapon at the ANBU, as he expected the ANBU dodged easily, not seeing the runes ingraved on the blade that started shining once the blade pierced its real target, the captain's shadow, the ANBU tried to move but for some reason he couldn't move a single muscle, Naruto approched him and said

"Don't try to move it's useless, the **Dosō Shikiten (Internment Rite)** immobilizes the target upon the blade piercing their shadow. Just do us a favor and die **Banbutsu no Fukai (Rotting of All Creation)**." and Naruto corroded the ANBU's body until nothing was left behind, after that he opened the door a,dans entered the room while closing said door behind him, and saw the person he was here for, Hiruzen Sarutobi.

Sarutobi Hiruzen, a 68 year old man with grey/white, spiky hair with a small, white goatee, he has numerous wrinkles and a few liver spots on his face, and is dressed in a long, white robe with black ninja sandals, was currently asleep in a hospital bed, alive not dead as many thought was the case. How he survived was a very interesting story. He used the Fourth's dead demon consuming seal to seal away Orochimaru's arms, and the price that was required for the use of the jutsu, the price being that the shinigami would devour the user's soul.

He then used the Uzamaki clan's blood clone, which the Shodaime had listed in the forbidden scroll of jutsu, during the time that the resurrected Nidaime Hokage had used his **Kokuangyo no Jutsu (Bringer Of Darkness Technique).** The blood clone, similar to a shadow clone, split the user's chakra in half and had a complete personality of its own. Hiruzen had theorised that since the clone had the same chakra as him, and an independent personality, than it should also mean that the clone actually contained a part of his soul, as further proven by the fact that, should he dispel the clone, not only would the chakra used to create the clone be returned to the user, but the memories of the clone as well. He had than delved into the medical field, from which had been stated the requirements for something to be considered a living being, and to be more specific, human . It had to have actual organs, had to respire, excrete, consume, digest, have a soul amongst other things. This is where he had found a loop hole in the shingami's contract terms, because a great amount of blood had been used, the blood clone was an actual clone, having real organs and having real dna, it could eat, excete, respire etc, and it had half of his soul in it and an independent personality, it was a true living being in its own right, although it still had to take commands from him, nonetheless the shingami had no choice but to acknowledge his theory and had in fact complemented him, praising him for being only the second man to ever outwit him, though refusing to divulge the name of the other person to have escaped his clutches. Still, the demi god had warned that he would take his whole soul regardless if he tried pulling a stunt like that again. How Naruto knew all that, it was simple, Orochimaru for all his supposed genius was a rather simple person, so Naruto knew about his plans for Konoha when he met the Sunagakure team, I mean come on, an instable jinchuriki in a village that was bleeding you dry, that had invasion written all over it. When he met the snake sannin in the **Shi no mori (Forest of Death)** that was just conformation of what he already knew. Naruto also realised that the best time for an invasion would be the finals, with all the foreigners coming to visit and all, giving the Sannin's forces a perfect cover. Also, knowing Orochimaru from the files he read he knew that the Sannin would want to kill his mentor personally. Finally looking at the stadium where the finals were held, Naruto knew the only place the sannin could engage Sarutobi in a fight would be the roof, so he installed a spying runic array on the roof that allowed Naruto a 360 degrees coverage of the entire fight, which allowed him to know that Sarutobi survived. The part that he found funny was that both the old monkey and his successor used the exact same manner to escape paying the shinigami his due.

What, didn't you think Naruto would know, you know what they say, an arsonist would always go back to the scene of his crime to see it. And Naruto was no exception to the rule, he went and saw everything that happened the night of the Uchiha massacre. What he felt concerning it? Well the less said about that, the better.

Anyway, he knew that what Hiruzen did left him paralyzed and ripe for the taking. I mean other than three or four individuals, everyone just mourned the Sandaime's passing, what better way to get away with killing someone than killing him when everyone thinks he is dead? He sat on a chair by the bed and waited for the old man to wake up which took less than a minute. When the old Hokage looked at him his eyes widened in surprise and he tired to move but he was still paralised so all he could do was stare at the inruder in slight fear, he tried flaring his chakra but for some reason he couldn't even access the energy let alone use. Seeing that he had no options, he decided to only play he could was stalling until the ANBU arrived.

"Who are you?" he started the conversation, the blonde just chuckled before saying

"Who am I? Really old man, you don't recognise me, I am your surrogate grandson, huh _jiji!_ " said Naruto while spitting the word jiji like it was poison. Hiruzen was thrown in a loop, when suddenly recognition flashed in his eyes and he asked almost afraid to ask

"Na.. Naruto is that you?" the blonde just smirked and said

"Yes Hiruzen, I hope your confortable since this is the last time we are going to meet."

"The last time, what do you mean? If this a joke it's not funny!" while inwardly he was panicking, since when? Since when was he being tricked by this upstart? How many years?

"Yes, the last time since I am going to kill you, as for the answer to the questions that you were asking in your little head, since I was six, I was tricking since I was six." he said causing Hiruzen's eyes to widen, it was like he can...

"read your mind? Not really Hiruzen it's just that you are very predictable if nothing else." said Naruto casually before looking at Hiruzen with cold eyes

"I suppose you know why I am here don't you? I am here to avenge my mother." he said causing Hiruzen's eyes to widen in surprise and a little bit of fear, he had to stall, the ANBU...

"Are dead." finished Naruto "I didn't want anyone interrupting us so I took care of them before coming here, I'm sure you don't mind." said Naruto with a cruel smirk.

"Naruto..." started Hiruzen "I don't know what you are talking about, you are an orphan remember..." he tried reasoning with him

"Case file: Uzumaki Naruto. Jinchuriki is showing interests that were against his primary function as weapon of Konoha. Continued surveillance confirms influence from other factor: Unohana Retsu. Course of action: Removal of influencing factor. Asset used: Uchiha Itachi codenamed Crow. Ring any bells." said Naruto

"Naruto... you have to understand... Konoha was weak after the Kyuubi attack, we needed you as a shinobi not playing doctor!" that was the wrong thing to say, not that there was anything Hiruzen could say to stop Naruto, since all the old man got for his troubles was one of Naruto's **Geneiken (Illusion swords)** in his guts. Realising his close death, Hiruzen tried to appeal to Naruto one last time

"Naruto I know what I did was wrong, but please take it all on me, no one else has to suffer for it, Retsu wouldn't want you to hurt innocents." Naruto merely nodded before piercing the older man with another sword in his heart killing instantly. The swords had runes on them that lighted up before flames spread from the blades and consumed Hiruzen's body.

 **Scene change :**

Naruto left the building, in the middle of the night and once he was far enough he flared his chakra and activated multiple runes, Ansuz to be more specific, that his clones put on multiple locations in the building. Seeing his job done, Naruto returned to the appartement he lived in using the confusion caused by his little fire.

 **Flash Back end.**

While he was going back memory lane, Naruto arrived at one of his many safehouses that he had established through the years, this one was a simple cabin in a clearing a few miles from the **Hi no kuni (Fire country)/kaze no kuni (Wind country)** borders, it allowed him a lot of privacy due to the methods he used to keep a low profile. When he entered the room, he clapped his hand and multiple black runes spread from his legs and crawler up the walls, Naruto then said

 **"Hachigyō Sōgai (Eight Joined Twin Cliffs)"** Outside a double dislocation barrier which erases whatever is within it from existence and removes the space it takes up from an outsider's inner consciousness, making it so one cannot even perceive its presence, was formed. What made this barrier even better in Naruto's honest opinion is that for anyone but him the very thought of getting close to it does not even occur to those outside it. That made it very useful when wanting a private conversation with someone or simply liking to keep one's own privacy. After making sure that no one was going to inrude on him, Naruto simply sitted in seiza and closed his eyes, getting himself ready to meet with his 'tenant' so to speak.

 **Scene change :**

The Kyubi No Kitsune, or as he was named Kurama by his creator the Rikudou sennin was sitting in his jail, or as he prefered to call it now his torture chamber, he was attached with pitch black swords to a huge rock over a lake made from Lava all his limbs were pierced by the thrice damned swords even his tails were pierced. It was not allways the case, you see his seal was just a cage too small for himself to be in but NO! He just had to try and influence his host so that he could escape. In order to do that, he couldn't afford to have a strong host, he needed Naruto to be weak. So he took away a part of him, he took away his darkness, his hatred, he took away that part of Naruto's soul during the sealing, before the seal had fully settled in. He would than use this part of his soul to store all the negative emotions Naruto had and build it up to form a powerful hatred that would rival even his own. This would be Kurama's leverage over him, all he would have to do is wait for the darkest and most painful moment in his host's life, where he would have no choice but to rely on power. This would also be the day that he escaped, he would then use the hatred and anger stored inside Dark Naruto to manipulate the light Naruto into removing the seal, effectively turning himself against himself. Once the seal was removed, the bijuu would than devour the Uzumaki and be reborn. This was his ultimate escape plan. But as they say, all plans never escape enemy contact, as a way to gain Dark Naruto's help he gave him access to his own memories expecting the brat to just stew in his hatred without a purpose, but apparently dark Naruto did not get the memo since he used said memories to grow stronger and in a feat that he still could not believe even now that it had happened, both Naruto's managed to unite and became something more, the result of the merger was a genius of unparalleled intellect, one far surpassing his own father in the use of fuinjutsu, and even worse the brat had the same chakra as his accursed mother, and he used said chakra to bind him in this seal, not only that but the damned brat tortured him whenever he felt like it by scewering him with the swords. In fact the last few days were the only time of rest the bijuu had in over eight years.

"fufufufu, how the mighty have fallen, who would have thought the great kyubi no kitsune would be sealed inside a child none the less." the bijuu, using his limited mobility, turned towards the sound and saw his jailor, Naruto's real appearance.

" **You... What are you doing here?** " he growled the bijuu threateningly but the jinchuriki just twitched his fingers and the swords dug deeper into Kurama causing the bijuu to howl in pain and the teen to roar in laughter

"Come now kyu, aren't you happy to see me again, fufufufufufufufu, I thought you missed me"

" **Like a cancer... Huff huff... What the fuck do you want you brat.** " said the kyubi while trying to regain his breath before he howled in pain since the blasted swords digged even deeper inside him.

"Fufufufu How the mighty have fallen, the strongest of the nine reduced to this, but don't worry since you are going to be relocated sonn enough" said the strangely dressed blond before he made the swords stop digging inside the bijuu

" **Naruto! You Brat, after all I have done for you, you reduce me to this! Mark my words brat I will have your head for this!** " roared the bijuu

"All you have done for me? Don't try to play the victim here Kyubi, It does not suit you, did you forget that I know what you were plotting Bijuu chan. Face it you have made a bid for freedom and it back fired, but don't worry your stay here in my body is over" answered Naruto causing the bijuu to look at him questioningly causing the genius to chuckle before he burst into mad laughter, enerving even the millenia old bijuu.

"I finally did it, five years of research and hard work finally gave fruit, the **Kairi no ken (Sword of rupture)** is complete!"

" **The Kairi no ken (Sword of rupture)?** " asked the bijuu, he did not know why but the words filled him with dread, seeing that he had an attemptive audience Naruto decided to explain his discovery to the bijuu.

"you see, my darkness planned to kill you for your trickery bijuu chan, so when we merged and I emerged as the dominant personnality, I decided to continue with that plan..." But that was as far as Naruto was able to reach in his monologue before he was interrupted by the bijuu's booming laughter

" **Buwahahaha, kill me? KILL ME?! And to think that I thought you became starter boy, I am the kyubi no yoko, the strongest of the bijuu, hatred incarnated, there is no way a whelp like you can kill me, I was here on this world before you ancestors infested It and I shall be here long after your descendants are long dead...** " but then he noticed Naruto's eyes, those damn eyes that made him feel so vulnerable, so he choose silence.

"As I was saying this will kill you bijuu chan, now let's explain how this jutsu will kill you shall we? The begining was my own personal version of the Uzumaki clan kekkei genkai the **Hachiman (God of war)** that allows the Uzumaki to give form their dense Uzumaki chakra, mostly into chains but some Uzumaki had other shapes like my **G** **eneiken (Illusion swords)**. That gave the squeleton of the jutsu if you will since you see the name of the jutsu is **Kairi no ken (Sword of rupture).** " Naruto finished his explanation by forming a pitch black, straight edged sword with a simple crossguard and a round pommel. Then Naruto dismissed the sword and let it disappear, he then wrote with his chakra the runes ansuz and watched it as it turned to a small fire. Naruto then looked at his prisonner and said

"runes, using the potent Yin chakra that I have as a result of having only your Yang half sealed inside me, since my chakra had to counter balancelle excess of Yang chakra in my body, I can influence the world around me using the runes to force concepts into the world. Now the hard part fusing both the **Geneiken (Illusion swords)** and the runes into a single technique, that process took me almost two years." as he said that he summoned a **Geneiken (Illusion swords)** and tossed it away into some part of the mindscape, as the blade impalled some rock or something, multiple runes appeared on the blade and shined before the whole thing exploded with the force of ten explosive tags. As he looked at his bijuu he saw confusion, he continued after taking a breath.

"The next piece of the puzzle was your old man, the rikudou sennin, Hagoromo Ootsutsuki, his most famous ability was the **Sozo sabotsu (creation of all things)** technique that allowed him to split the bijuu into nine different pieces upon his death. This jutsu was a fusion of Yin release to give the Juubi chakra shape into nine different entities, and Yang chakra to breath life into them. So Inton (Yin release) Is the secret to giving form to chakra so, here I asked myself: If Inton (Yin release) can give form to chakra, it must also be able to take form from chakra, in order worlds Inton (Yin release) like it can create all things, can also destroy all things. I mean that was the basis of my **Fushoku (corrosion)** ability, my body automatically combining water and yin chakra to form a corrosive liquid that can corrode all things, of course since I was too young to actually use chakra, and because my water affinity is minor at best, that caused my chakra to permanently fuse both my water and yin chakra into **Fushoku (corrosion).** " and then he started writing multiple runes in midair, the runes glowed before then combined and formed a golden portal in front of Naruto. From said portal appeared a golden handle that Naruto took in his hand and pulled, emerging from the portal was a golden handle with an elaborate crossguard, the whole thing was covered with blue lines, a pulse of chakra from Naruto and a red circuit like pattern appeared from the handle and spread to the skies, then the circuit glowed with chakra before returning to the guard. A golden glow later, and in Naruto's hands appeared a piculiar weapon, It has an abnormal shape that doesn't match what would normally be classified as something specialized like a sword. It looked like a lancé, It has a golden handle and It has a dull point with red markings (I don't think I did the scene justice with my description so please check Gilgamesh using Ea against Iskandar in fate zero)

At the sight, the bijuu couldn't help but suppress a shudder at the utterly wrongness of the sword in his jinchuriki's hand, not the shape or the immense chakra in it. But the fact that the weapon just seemed wrong as in unnatural for it to be in this world. But most importantly the bijuu felt that the weapon in his container's hand was probably capable of killing him and his kind, but he couldn't allow weakness to appear in his face, If he was going to die then he will die with his head held high, so the great bijuu said

" **So that toy is supposed to scare me boy?** " he sneered, trying to hide his fear behind false bravado

"yes, this and I quote you 'toy's' one and only attack, the **Tenchi Kairisu Kaibyaku no Hoshi (The Star of Creation that Split Heaven and Earth)** is based on the concept of destruction of anything. Anything that is destroyed by this technique can never be repaired or restored. It took me the better part of three years to finish this technique, so what do you think? Impressive right?" asked Naruto causing the bijuu to narrow his eyes and look at Naruto before asking

" **So now what you brat?! You will use your shiny new tout to kill me? What are you waiting for then? Do it, I will not beg for my life.** " said the bijuu with his voice showing his resolve. Naruto just dismissed the sword before he looked at the bijuu with a shepish expression

"well, I can not power this baby on my own you know, I can forge the sword just fine but I need about a tail's worthy of your chakra to use the **Tenchi Kairisu Kaibyaku no Hoshi (The Star of Creation that Split Heaven and Earth)** " that cause the bijuu to smirk at his container and said

" **What makes you think I will share any of my chakra with you whelp?** " that caused Naruto to just shaker his head at the bijuu before he answered with his own smirk

"And what makes you think you have a choice in the matter fur ball" before the bijuu could ask what he meant by that, the cage began to change. He was restrained by shackles and a muzzle was placed on him. The four warriors appeared on four platforms with chakra chains attached to them. Naruto walked up to the cage and placed his hands on the new cage.

" **Shiro no Shugo-sha (Guardians of the Castle.)** " Naruto called out. The cage glowed and changed into an old time Japanese dungeons. The Kyūbi attempted to break the shackles but he could not. Naruto backed up and faced the cage. "Okay, let's see if this works." Naruto said and placed his hands in the chakra forming seal. Again, the Kyūbi felt his chakra leave him. He looked to see his chakra flow up to the armored beings. Suddenly, a seal appeared under Naruto and the Kyūbi was shocked to see him shrouded in his chakra. A tail moved back and forth as the boy observed it.

"Wow, this is awesome!" Naruto exclaimed.

" **What have you done boy! ANWSER ME!** " The Kyūbi demanded loudly. Naruto just smiled at him.

"This new seal, the Shiro no Shugo-sha (Guardians of the Castle.), keeps you in your cage and saps your chakra, making it my chakra. It allows me to use your chakra without asking you and without drawbacks. My friends here are helping with the process of draining you of your chakra. In a matter of years, your chakra will belong to me." Naruto explained. The fox trashed wildly trying to escape his bonds. The four guardians yanked on his chains, tightening their hold. He glared at Naruto with uncontained fury.

" **I WILL KILL YOU UZUMAKI NARUTO! I WILL SEE YOU AND ANY ONE YOU CARE ABOUT BURN IN HELL!** " The Kyūbi roared.

"Scream all you want, no one here cares." Naruto said and faded away.

 **Scene change.**

Seeing that his business with bijuu was over, Naruto went to one of the cupboards and took some black powder, he then poured said powder on his arms and then he walked to the center of the room and drew a circle, with the appropriate symbols set apart in four quadrants upon the ground, using the black powder. Then he placed his palms down under the circle to activate the seal by saying

" **Kakushitsuijaku (Summoning of the Tracking Sparrows).** " the circle glowed with a blue light as the symbols within the circle became animated, causing various numbers to appear within until the specific set was found. The number set correlates to longitude and latitude. This particular seal is one of Naruto's early accomplishements, it enhanced the user's senses and awareness. As such, when Naruto used it with his already high awareness, he was able to sense chakra in a range of almost fourty miles. The basis of the seal was seal capable of storing a technique that Mito created a few years before her death.

After some tweaking done to it, Naruto had come up with a seal that could use the surrounding energy to recharge itself. The seal completed, it only left Naruto the task of placing it in several areas in the elemental country. That was how Naruto's spy network worked. Naruto used it to track several unique chakra signatures, jinchuriki chakra signatures. One was in Suna, that was without Gaara his old friend. Two were in Kumo, they were the 'guardians' of Kumo, the **hachibi (Eight tails)** jinchuriki Killer Bee and the **niibi (two tails)** jinchuriki Yugito. Two other signatures were were roaming **Tsuchi no Kuni (Earth Country)** , they were the jinchuriki of the **yonbi (four tails)** Roshi and the jinchuriki of the **gobi (five tails)** Han. One was on the outskirts of **Takigakure (Hidden Waterfall)** , that meant the girl was the jinchuriki of the **nanabi (Seven tails)** , Fu he believed her name was. One was in **Kirigakure (Hidden Mist)** , that meant he was none other than Yagura, the jinchuriki of the **sanbi (three tails)**. The final one and the one Naruto was looking for was living in **Katsuragizan (mount Katsuragi)** with two other people. The **rokubi (Six tails)** jinchuriki Utakata, now that was annoying, not the jinchuriki himself, that was the easy part, and neither were the people within him, to Naruto they might as well be civilians, but the location.

 **Katsuragizan (mount Katsuragi)** is a mountain which holds the Tsuchigumo clan's kinjutsu: **Dohatsuten (Fury)** , a technique which could create a massive explosion, capable of wiping out an entire village. It was developed by En no Gyōja, which alongside another jutsu, the **Tsuchigumo-Ryū: Kinseijutsu Kaihō: Tenchi Kaibyaku (Tsuchigumo Style: Forbidden Life Technique Release: Creation of Heaven and Earth)** made the man such a feared shinobi during the third shinobi great war. After the man's death, **Katsuragizan (mount Katsuragi)** became the home of the loyalists to En no Gyōja after he and the elders of the clan split over the fate of the Tsuchigumo clan's kinjutsu. The majority of the clan remained in the village with the elders, while the few loyalists left for Mount Katsuragi, where their numbers dwindled down over the years, it seems that all what was left of the loyalists are two people. Sighing to himself Naruto decided to hit the hate and worry about the Rokubi later.

 **Scene change :**

 _Minato Sensei_

 _Let me apologise first and foremost for breaking our rendezvous schedule, but as you may have already guessed, I have not done so without reason. Allow me to assure you that my cover is still intact and I eagerly await the time that I can complete my part of our mission, my will has not wavered, you are and will always be my mentor, my leader, and my true father and I shall not ever neglect or undermine your authority nor will I abandon our righteous path, even if it might pave our way to hell, it matters not as long as our loved ones are safe, sound, and happy, as long as we can prevent the end of our way of life, and as long as my great granduncle, Uchiha Madara is stopped, both my life and afterlife is worth the sacrifice._

 _I have regrettably yet to establish Yahiko's motives or true loyalties, or how it is that he inherited the powers of the rinnegan, I have tried to get close to him but it is too much of a risk, Konan watches over him like, for lack of a better term, a mother hen, and I have still not been able to discover the whereabouts of Nagato, I am however almost certain that he is no longer amongst the living, perhaps Yahiko killed him and took his eyes, perhaps Nagato died of natural causes and gave his eyes to yahiko, similar to how my cousin gave his eyes to Kakashi senpei, it is unlikely that he died in battle though, given the power he might and should have wielded together with the backup of the powerful allies that he had in Konan and Yahiko._

 _Speaking of power, I have recently discovered that the rinnegan may have the power to resurrect the dead in the form of a true resurrection, but I regret to inform you that is as far as I have progressed in my attempts to uncover the mysteries of the rinnegan and the true power that he might posses. My attempts to befriend him and accompany him on missions have failed miserably, Konan and Madara sama seem intent on isolating him from not just me but the others too, I however do suspect that the intent is more towards me, I might possibly have to take a few steps back lest our cover be shattered to a million pieces. Nevertheless let me not forget to mention that we will begin to actively hunt the Bijuu in almost exactly three years from this date on, I hope you will be prepared by then._

 _There is no doubt in my mind that by now, you have already ascertained that none of the above mentioned reasons could possibly warrant such drastic measures, to the extent that I would break our rendezvous schedule, sensei, perhaps I should have taken your advice that day, perhaps I have truly failed you, Kushina sama, Naruko chan, Okaa chan, myself, and even my foolish little brother, perhaps I have failed everyone._

 _Sensei, please let not your hate or ire be directed towards my otouto, let it not be directed torwards Okaa chan, sensei, if you want justice, than I will take the full force of your hate and ire, I will take the blame for what my brother has done, sensei, I will gladly turn myself in so that you and your family may have your justice, I was the one that told him to murder his best friend, I was the one that mislead him, I was the one that ignored your advice, and I was the one that filled him with hate._

 _I am the reason my foolish little brother killed his best friend, sensei, Naruto kun has passed away, your son is dead._

 _Itachi._

 **Scene change :**

"Naruko! How dare you do this to me? Come back here! I'm going to kill you!" screamed Rin, a 27 year old beautiful, voluptuous, and feral woman with shoulder length brown hair and two bangs framing her face, big brown eyes and long canines jutting out from her lips with the trademark Inuzuka clan markings on each of her cheeks. She is wearing black, long, tight fitting, and calf length ninja pants with white medical tape wrapped around her ankles. On her upper body is short sleeved version of the standard jounin top that is especially tight, but comfortable around her DD cupped chest area, she also has white medical tape wrapped around her forearms and a weapons and tools pouch on her left leg. Her normally brown coloured hair is now a neon orange colour, suspected to be the source of her ire.

Hehehe, you'll never catch me alive Rin nee chan, that's the punishment you get for winning our last taijutsu spar!" replied Naruko with glee over her shoulder, Natruko, a beautiful 12 year old girl with a heart shaped face and bright blue eyes accentuated by her dark red, waist length, and silky hair. She is wearing black, tight fitting spandex shorts with a red mini skirt on top, and black low-heeled boots with an olive-green tipping. Her upper body is coloured inversely to her lower body with a short sleeved, red t - shirt that leaves her lower tummy open with a black flak jacket on top. She also has a grey weapons pouch attached to her right thigh.

"Naruko! Come back here and take your punishment like a real kunoichi! How dare you do this to me, how am I supposed to get a mate with this hideous hair colour, how could you swap a woman's hair conditioner with orange dye of all things!"screeched Rin in anger, chasing the poor little red head around the huge Uzumaki mansion.

"Tche, I can't believe those two are going at it again." Said Mikoto in amusement from her spot beneath the cool shade of a large tree. She is wearing tight fitting, black A.N.B.U pants that accentuate her hips and curves with blue ninja sandals and blue bandages around her ankles and a tight fitting, short sleeved shirt that is tight against her DD breasts with a turtle neck collar and the Uchiha clan fan symbol at the middle of her back.

"Hehehe, like I would ever turn myself in, what kind of mastermind criminal does that." Said Naruko tauntingly, leading the sexy inuzuka on a unending chase around the Uzumaki clan compound gardens.

"Sigh...how many times do I have to tell her not to play pranks on her elders!" said Kushina, an older and more endowed version of little Naruko with violet eyes and plump lips with red lipstick. She is wearing a similar outfit to her daughter with the exception the belly exposing under shirt, choosing rather to cover up her lower abdomen with a longer, dark navy top, her colour scheme is also different, with a her under shit being dark navy in colour and her overtop skirt is also a few inches longer than her daughter's, also dark navy in colour. If it wasn't for the obvious age difference, they could easily have been mistaken for twins.

"Oh give it a rest Kushina chan, you know she'll never stop her pranks, besides, haven't you noticed that Rin secretly enjoys giving chase to Naruko chan?" said Mikoto playfully.

"Heh, I guess you're right, must be some Inuzuka fetish." Replied Kushina with a equally playful smile.

Mikoto broke down into a fit of giggles after that, trust her long time best friend to brighten up her days when she was bored, she couldn't help but remember the times before they became genin, when her friend used to force her to participate in her pranking adventures, thank goodness her father never found out about her involvement, it was so unbefitting of one from the great uchiha to make the fool out of themselves, at least according to her dad, not that she cared about that at the time, she was just enjoying herself with her best friend and that was all that mattered to her at the time.

"You know, little naruto kun and her would get along really well, he had already surpassed your pranking feats when I was at the village, I wonder if Naruko chan would have been able to surpass him, or maybe they could have made a undefeatable tag team." Said Mikoto casually only to cover up her mouth with her hand immediately afterwards, mentally chastising herself for her slip up. She felt so guilty now seeing the hurt and pained expression on her friend, damn her for speaking without thinking.

"Naruto kun, my sochi, I miss him so much." Whispered Kushina to herself with her hand tightly gripping her chest area. Her body started to rock hard in between her sobs, she'd tried to suppress the feeling the whole day, the feeling that something terrible was about to take place and it was going to change her life drastically, this feeling, it was even worse than the one she had on the day she gave birth to her children. Something bad was going to happen to her, she could feel it and whatever it was, it involved her son somehow, because whenever she thought about him, or whenever someone mentioned his name, that feeling would return tenfold.

"K-kushina chan I...I'm sorry, that was insensitive of me, I'm sorry kushi chan, I'm sorry!" wailed Mikoto, she and Kushina crushing each other in a strong hug, both for their own comfort and for each other's comfort. Despite she herself being an emotional wreck, Kushina knew that Mikoto was suffering just as much as her because of her own sons, one was all alone after witnessing the cruel elimination of his family and went through the betrayal of his brother, while the other was a spy in an evil organisation where anyone of the members had the potential to kill him, even worse was her elder son's refusal to change his mind about his planned death to her younger son, whichever way she looked at it, Mikoto would lose one of her sons before the end of the next decade, something no mother should have to know or go through.

"Shhhhh, its ok Mikoto chan, we'll get through this, I prom..." trailed of kushina, cut of mid sentence by the most heart wrenching sound she had ever heard. It sounded like a death scream or the cries of some tormented soul, a hurt, pained, guilt ridden, sorrowful, and regret filled cry, someone in great despair.

"Kushina chan, what was that!" asked Mikoto in a harsh but worried whisper.

"I...It...I don't know, it came from the direction that...Minato kun!" screeched Kushina loudly, her eyes wide in fear and despair. Not wasting time Kushina, with incredible reflexes summoned her long, black katana with a dark red handle from a summoning seal on her right wrist and was storming down the surrounding forest in an instant before Mikoto could even react.

"Kushina! Don't go in alone!" shouted Mikoto before giving chase, with Rin and Naruko coming in and catching up with Mikoto, all three mentally and physically already prepared for what could possibly be the battle of their lives ,Naruko already had her own katana unsealed, very similar to her mother's except with a dark blue handle and Rin was already in her man beast mode, running full speed in order to catch up with their friend/mother.

"Aunt Mikoto, what'ts going on? What was that sound, it sounded like tou san, is he in trouble?" asked Naruko, a few tears falling from her bright blue eyes.

"I'm not sure, there aren't many shinobi that could give Minato kun any problems, but if there is someone like that, than it is the person who could infiltrate the barrier your mom and dad set up without alerting anyone, if indeed someone entered the barrier without us knowing until now, than the situation we are in is a very dire one, the only people capable of such a feat...are people from that organisation." Explained Mikoto.

'Akatsuki? The organisation that want to kill onii chan, I hate them, their the reason I can't be with my onii chan,I can't. I won't lose to them!' thought Naruko, a determined expression forming on her face.

"Akatsuki? I see, then all we have to do is defeat them, this is exactly what we've been hiding out and preparing for all these years, if we cannot defeat them now, then all our efforts up until now would have been useless, in any case my nose is good enough to smell everything within this barrier, if there is an interloper, than he either doesn't have a scent, which is impossible, or he is masking it somehow, which also wouldn't work against me." Said Rin with a frown on her face.

"If both hypothetical scenarios are impossible, than what's going on?" asked Naruko

"From the intel we have received from Itachi kun, it is pretty much clear that the laws of science and physics do not apply to the akatsuki, some of them are even immortal, I wouldn't be surprised if there is someone who really doesn't have a scent among them." Pointed out Mikoto, the rest of the trip was conducted in silence after that, each one now trying to contemplate the possibilities of what lay ahead and prepared for the biggest fight of their lives.

'Its that feeling again, I've been feeling like this the whole day, Minato Kun, hold on, I won't let anything happen to you!' Thought Kushina as she sped through the beautiful jungle, not that she would notice or pay attention to something like that in her current mental and emotional state.

"There she is, we should slow down and approach with caution from here on, try to conceal your chakra as much as you can, I'll take care of the rest" Ordered Mikoto, the tamoe in her sharingan eyes spinning wildly as she set up a cloaking genjutsu to hide hers and her teammates' presence.

"Hai!" replied the other two kumoichi simultaneously.

They soon caught up to Kushina when they found her hiding behind a gigantic tree outside a large clearing, an area of the forest that they all recognised as Minato's favourite training ground.

"Kushina sama, where's the enemy?" whispered Rin.

Kushina had to admit that she almost peed on her pants at the sudden appearance of her friends and daughter, If it wasn't for her knowledge of her best friend's genjutsu abilities and her own shinobi experience, she might have blown their cover, she almost didn't notice them creaping up on her until the last second.

'Damn mikoto and her stupid genjutsu dattebane!' thought Kushina.

"Oka chan, what's wrong with otou san?" whispered Naruko with a sad and concerned expression, breaking Kushina from her momentary lapse.

It was strange behaviour indeed, her tou san was just standing there looking at the ground with his body rocking violently, she wasn't sure but she thought she could hear what sounded like choked sobs escaping from his throat.

"I don't know misume, I can't sense anyone around the vicinity and we haven't detected anything from the barrier, I'm sure its nothing, come, how about we go and cheer him up huh, how does that sound?" asked Kushina with a loving smile on her face, though the smile didn't quite reach her eyes, she could still feel it, that cold, oppressive feeling at the centre of her being and it was at an all time intensity at the moment, something was wrong about this whole scene, something was very wrong, she just couldn't put a finger on what it actually was though. Still, she would have to be strong for her misume, she couldn't and wouldn't allow her precious daughter to hurt because of her, even if she had to pretend everything was fine to do so.

 **4 Months Later: Uzushiogakure No Saito Ruins...**

It had taken Minato almost four months to fully recover from the horrible beat down he suffered at the hands of his beloved wife after he presented Itachi's message to her. It had gone down in phases, first it was complete shock and denial, followed by an emotional breakdown and endless tears sorrow and heartache, and finally, vengeance!

It is not the least bit uncommon for people to look for someone to blame during times of crisis and tragedy, this usually stems from their need for justice, but there cannot be justice if there is no one that can be held accountable for their pain, this is why people will almost always find a scapegoat to blame for their misfortunes, and it was not hard for Kushina to find her husband because he was right next to her and he was directly accountable for some of the painful things that happened to her and her family.

The former jinchuuriki had been on a murderous rampage and beaten her husband to a near inch of his life, to her this was righteous judgement that had been a long time coming, he was the one that made her leave her sochi kun with that woman, he was the one that lied to her about her sochi's wellbeing and had it not been for Mikoto's arrival, she would have never found out about that excuse of a woman's abandonment of her son. He was the one that made her stay here even after she found out the truth and even went as far as to incapacitate her for weeks just to buy time to convince her otherwise.

She'd eventually given in after spending three weeks thinking about it, she was never happy about that decision but this was Minato koi, her husband, he would never have done something like this unless there was no other way around it right, besides the more she had thought about it, the more it seemed like the right decision to stay, it wasn't like she wouldn't see her sochi again right? Of course she would see him, and she would give him all the love in the world when they were reunited, she could still make up for the time lost when they went back to the village, things would become a lot worse if they just forcefully took him away from Konoha.

For one, they couldn't afford to make an enemy out of Konoha at the moment, this was a chance she would have taken with ease 14 years ago because she knew that Jiraiya and Tsunade, two of the legendary sannin would side with them, Tsunade was her family and Jiraiya was like a father to Minato kun and her children's god father, plus there was Rin and Kakashi. Of course at the time she could not have expected Mikoto to side with her, she had a whole clan to look out for at the time, but still, what she had would have been enough, she wouldn't have to worry about the safety of her children too much because there would be people to help protect them while they were busy holding off a ninja village and Akatsuki, it would have been difficult but she was sure they could have managed somehow with all those top class shinibi to back them up.

But after what she heard from Mikoto, she had realised how naive she was, yes she was furious that Minato kun lied to her, but she understood why he did, because running back to konoha to get her child would have been foolish, they had no one apart from Rin to support them, Itachi was too loyal to konoha and would probably betray them if they went against Konoha just like he betrayed his clan, and Mikoto would obviously side with her child just like Kushina herself would side with Minato kun no matter what. Jiraiya, Kakashi, and tsunade had already betrayed them by abandoning their son and leaving him to the wolves. And on top of Konoha and akatsuki, there was still Iwa and Kumo, if other people found out that they were missing ninja of konoha with little kids to protect, they would be after them like a pack of rabid dogs, not even the Legendary Yellow Flash and Red Death could survive those odds, if they were alone, maybe, but they had children, their enemies would use that against them, that was just unfortunately the cruel nature of the shinobi world.

Sure they could have faked Naru kun's death when he was born, but than people would want to know what happened to the Kyubi. Bijuu just didn't disappear like that. The only way to do it was to present him to the sandaime hokage as the jinchuuriki, at least this way he would have had the protection of a whole hidden village, until Minato kun could recover his strength, until they were ready to take care of Madara and his goons. Three weeks of incapacitation, explanations, and justifications was all it took for her to understand this and not go running back to konoha to get her sochi back after finding out about her husband's lies, she'd eventually forgiven him and in fact loved him even more for taking on such a heavy burden for the safety of his home and family, she knew that he had everyone's best interests at heart, that big heart of his was the reason she fell in love with him in the first place.

But! After finding out that her sochi was dead! What was the point then! What was the point of all this nonsense, what was the point of leaving him in that hell hole to suffer for so many years if he was going to die anyway! What was the damn point! If only she hadn't ignored her motherly instincts, if only she had just stormed back there and taken her sochi kun back to where he belonged, with his kaa chan! Sure he would have been in even more danger, but at least he would have been happy with his family, at least he would have known that he had a loving family, a mother, father, and sister who loved him more than anything in the world.

All this had been too much for her to take in and it had made her turn her back on her husband. All that planning and scheming, all that training and preparation just seemed incredibly useless now, she had lost herself to her rage and attacked her beloved without even thinking, a crime of passion maybe. It had taken both Mikoto and Rin's intervention to stop her from decapitating him with her katana, she had screamed in frustration, demanding they move out of the way so that she can make him pay, a battle had ensured between the three of them. Her husband was unconscious at the time and her daughter was an emotional wreck, so much so that she didn't even notice what was going on around her, too overwhelmed by the news of her onii chan's demise.

The battle had been a stalemate, no one was willing to give up, Kushina' s temporary insanity pushing her on to finish off her target, Mikoto and Rin's love for her pushing them on to prevent her from making the biggest mistake of her life. Eventually the duo had realised that the only way to stop her, short of killing her would be to use genjutsu, otherwise they would both eventually lose, she had too much overwhelming force and her skill with the sword was at an incomprehensible level, she would also outlast them with her Uzumaki chakra reserves and stamina and there was no one better than Mikoto to subdue her with genjutsu. She had been forced to use Kyoka Suigetsu to subdue the wild Uzumaki, Kushina, in her enraged state did not even consider the possibility of a Genjutsu and went on to subdue the illusions of her friends and murder the illusion of her husband. Losing consciousness almost immediately after that from the shock and despair that followed when she realised what she had done, her emotions overwhelming her once again.

Ironically, this incident played a big role in her decision to once again forgive her husband, she had woken up filled with heartache, regret, and guilt for what she had done to her husband, and the fact that he never even fought back made her believe that it was her fault for making him feel guilty for what happened, it made her think that he had actually wanted her to kill him because of the horrible and painful things that she said at the time that he himself was very emotionally vulnerable. She felt so selfish for being so inconsiderate, he must have been hurting just as much as her after finding out that his only son had passed away. Now not only did she lose her sochi, but she lost her koi too, this was just too much, she would have commited seppukku if it she didn't have her misume to live for.

When she found out that his death was just an illusion, she had watched over him like a mother hen and refused to leave his side, only leaving him alone for hygene purposes and nature's calling. It had taken a month and a half for him to regain consciousness and even then, another two and a half months to be physically fit again. Thank goodness for Rin's medical skills, by all rights and purposes, his injuries should have been too much for even an Uzumaki to survive.

Kushina had apologised profusely to him but Minato just brushed it off as nothing and forgave her instantly, saying that he couldn't possibly imagine his life without her in his life. Needless to say that they have never been closer after that, The Namikaze's would never be the same after the death of their son/brother, but they would live, Naruko took it harder than everyone but Minato and Kushina vowed to try their best to fill the gap in her heart that had opened up after her onii chan's death.

They decided not to pursue revenge against Sasuke for Mikoto and Itachi's sake. Itachi and Mikoto were literally family to them even without any dna connections, revenge would not only cause more pain to Mikoto and Itachi, but it would cause more pain for them too, in any case they doubted that Naruto would want them to live that kind of life, filled with hate and revenge. But they were no longer going to be fence sitters, no longer would they allow their lives to pass them by isolated in some unknown barrier inside a long forgotten land, no, it was time they faced their demons head on.

If they wanted to hold on to what remains of their family, than they would have to catch a wake up and realise that the world was not going to wait for them to get ready for whatever it is that they had planned, that is why Minato deciding to take an active part in his daughter's education as a shinobi. Up until now, he'd left her training up to her mother. It was something they had always wanted to do since the first day they laid eyes on their beautiful twins, they couldn't help at the time but notice that their children looked like mini versions of themselves. So it had been decided that Kushina would train their daughter and mould little Naruko in her image whilst Minato would be the one to one day educate Naruto in the shinobi arts and mould him in his image, teaching him his prized **Hiraishin no Jutsu (Flying Thunder God Technique)** to make him the second coming of the Yellow Flash Of Konoha.

Such dreams were unattainable now, their son was dead, murdered by his best friend, murdered by the son of their family friend, and murdered by the brother of Minato's student. It was with this realisation that Minato decided to take part in his daughter's training, she was already one level behind her mother in the art of seals and barriers and a kenjutsu master, learning and mastering everything her mother taught her in the arts. Naruko also inherited her mother's special chakra, able to manifest indestructible chains from her chakra and use them as a weapon in battle. The Uzu heiress had a particularly strong water affinity that she used in ways Minato would have to admit to have never seen or heard of before, using her water affinity in combination with her fuinjutsu abilities to create her own unique but very powerful fighting style. In his unbiased opinion, his daughter was already an S class shinobi in terms of ability, her 8 years of training under the tutorship of her mother had done wonders for her, the only thing she lacked now was actual experience. Still he'd like to think she was prepared for anything. Intense spars with one of the greatest Genjutsu masters in the world in Mikoto, one of the greatest Taijutsu specialists in Rin, Kenjutsu in her mother, and speedsters and space time masters in both himself and Mikoto, there was truly nothing she wasn't prepared for.

Still, there was going to be a change of plans, since he was now going to be going back to Konoha with the rest of his family and revealing himself, it was imperative that he made his daughter as strong as possible. She would also be taking S rank solo missions from now on, and he would have to talk to Fukusaku sama about letting her sign the toad contract, although he was a bit hesitant about doing so. The old sage had already done so much for him, he really felt bad about asking for anything more, but he would do it for his daughter. His beloved misume would become the most powerful shinobi in the elemental nations, a perfect blend between her kaa chan and her tou chan. While she wouldn't be able to learned the **Hiraishin no Jutsu (Flying Thunder God Technique)** , she would be strong enough. Maybe it wasn't their son that was destined, maybe her their daughter was that child of prophesy.


End file.
